The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1875.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 1246, 23 August 1875, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1875.

The Resident Magistrate at Timaru guvo a decision on Thursday last which promulgates an entirely new principle m criminal Jaw. A scoundrel who was clearly proved to have committed an aggravated assault on a poor little girl-, eleven years old, and to have fled from the hands ot justice as far as Otepopo m Otago, hefore he was captnredj was discharged on the ground that his having been brought back to Timaru wag sufficient punishment for his offence. On this understanding, it is clear that if the ruffian had evaded the police long enough to enable him to reach Invert cargill,|and had been brought back from thence, he should not onlj have been discharged, but should , have received travelling allowance, or other compensation for the inconvenience to which ho had been put. Had ho got as far as Melbourne, we suppose the Resident .Magistrate would have awarded him damages against the prosecutor and the police, and ordered his passage to be paid back to Melbourne. We never heardofarnoreimbecilejudgment,or one more calculated to encourage crime and bring the administration of justice into contempt. In this case, a respectable settler, of whose house the injured child was an inmate, went to considerable expense to biing the perpetratpr of the assault to punishment; and bit conduct was m the highest degree praiseworthy. A police officer too, displayed admirable activity, and underwent considerable fatigue m overtaking* the fugitive. But the settler might just as well have saved his money, time and- trouble, and the ' constable have stayed m the barracks, for all the good ciiey did. The Resident Magistrate could only sec the matter from the poor dear criminal's point of view, and decided that the equivalent for bruising

and* terrifying a helpless child, with the probable intention of ontrag-e, was :i pTeasant drive of seventy or ei»hty miles. There is another feature m tho case which should be drawn Httontion ' to. As it was expected that indeoent . '->■''- particulars would be elicited m evidence, -• ;the Court was very properly cleared,, the reporters only remaining 1 . Will it -'• r be ; believed thai the Resident Magiii; strate heldjhat, because the public were /.:■: jiDt;admitted to the trial, he could not sentence/the prisoner ? This, however, was the literal fact. On this principle, of coursq 7 - a, man has only; to make his , assault indecent, enough to necessitate ' : ibe clearing of the Court, m order to get off scot free.' The counsel for the prosecution naturally protested againit such a moistrous decision, and dei „.-. manded that the Court should be thrown, open and the trial he gone through again. To this the Magistrate could .. ( not .object;, but he then raised th** 1 ' argument on which he ultimately based ' 'his'jndgment, namely, that the prisoner "had suffered sufficient punishment m = 'being brought from the place whither he-had hastened to escape the penalty of his crime. It should be stated that . the prisoner was defended by able . counsel, and that therefore the Magistrate was not called upon to protect him m anyway; and specially it should ' be" noticed that the prisoner's counsel did not plead either the pxcl'usion of the. i..'.. public,- or the journey from Otepopo m bar ofsentence. Ho only endeavored, ( . pror«r!y, to show that the assault was not of the gravest criminal nature; and was, no doubt, as much astonished as the prosecutor, by the extraordinary grounds on which the liesident Magistrate defeated tho ends of justice. Such a judg- •:■ -irient cannot but have disastrous results, .::■ for who will undertake the repulsive task of prosecuting-, if thoso m authority ."■ r play such fantastic tricks." We say - unhesitatingly that __m discharging the prisoner on Thursday the Resident Magistrate struck a blow at the ; safety " of the person m this district; and .'•'-showed himself to be quite unfit for his .post. : We are at all times most unwilling to comment on the conduct of Government officials, because they have no .opportunity of defending themselves m __ print. j but/we feel it to be our public duty to animadvert strongly on this .o.caM,: m the i hope' that the attention of i_.;the; Minister of Justice will' be drawn „ to tlje .whole, question, of the capabilities "" or our Resident Magistrate for discharging the important functions entrusted to, him. In doing so, we only .-give.. expression to a deep and widespread feeling of dissatisfaction and alarm which has existed here t for some time past.