JUMP FROM A TRAIN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144856, 7 December 1915, Page 2

JUMP FROM A TRAIN.

PRISONER’S DASH FOB LIBERTY, At tho Supremo Court this morning, before his Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), John Alexander Angus -was brought up for sentence on a charge of escaping from custody near Inglewood on October 26 last. Prisoner handed in a written statement. His Honour: You make a charge that you got drink on tho train?— Y r es.

From whom?—The carriage was full right up. It was Labour night. What do you mean by “the carriage ■was full, right up”?—There were several men in tho car with whom I used to work on the railway.

Did tho constable see you have a drink?—Y r es, he had some himself. In reply to the Chief Justice it waa stated that the constable who was in charge of tho accused from Auckland to New Plymouth had returned to Auckland.

Continuing, his Honour said it was a most extraordinary charge.' “You ‘say tho constable saw you leave the train and then go into' the hotel. That is your statement, but it does not agree with' the constable’s statement at all. He says he went into'the lavatory for two or three minutes and on his return saw you-disappear through tho other end of the carriage. He went to tho platform and found you had disappeared. You know perfectly well that you had no business to leave the carriage. Y'ou' were severely cautioned by the Prisons Board not to have drink, yet at the first opportunity you deliberately disobey their orders. You are the sort of man who makes the work of the Prisons Board so hard. The Prisons Board trusts you, you make all sorts of promises to do what is right, and yet you, with twenty convictions, and given chance after chance, what do you do? When their back is tamed you seize the first opportunity of disobeying them and take liquor. If you are to bo excused it is of no usa having a law at all. You have been treated kindly and everything done to help you, but instead of keeping you in gaol this is their reward. There was a breach of probation in 1903, in 1913, 1914 and again in 1915. I will have to place you again under the Prisons Board as an habitual criminal, and for escaping from custody you are sentenced to six months’- hard labour.”