THE WANGANUI FIRE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14209, 25 May 1910, Page 6

THE WANGANUI FIRE.

SEVEN YEARS' IMPRISONMENT. | The two men, Joseph Paul Davis and j Martin Haines, who nad been louud guilty of arson in connection with tko I tire at the Rutland Hotel, Wanganui, appeared at the Supreme Court at \\unganui on Saturday, before his Honour the Chief Justice, for sentence, Mr. Ywll'ord, counsel lor the prisoners, made an appeal for leniency on account of the previous good character of the prisoners, adding that it was the statements made by the prisonerss to the police which had led to their conviction. His Honour said lie had remarked on more than one occasion that tlio function of a judge in determining a sentence was to linn ot only the most onerous but that which caused him tlio greatest anxiety in the performance of his judicial duty. He had to consider that nothing had I,eon known against the prisoners, jind that they wei-e young men. This was not an ordinary chso of arson. If it had been he should have dealt with it more leniently. But the fact was that if the fire had not taken place at the time it did —and, as he believed, contrary to the expectation Of Haines—if it had been delayed for an hour there would have been no chance ol : saving the lives of any of the people in the hoteh The prisoners, therefore, risked human life, any action which had any effect upon human (his Honour) always looked upon with horror, and lie could not deal with itotlierwise than from that point of view. The full sentence that the court could impose was imprisonment for life. He would, however, consider what had been said by counsel for the defence, and pass a sentence which he believed had been passed in similar cases in New Zealand. He remembered when ho was at the Bar at Timaru prosecuting a man who had committed an offence not really as serious as this, and the sentence he received was the sentence he (his Honour') proposed to impose in this case. He jnust pass a severe sentence

etliprw'iso tlifl community might think that. the pourts looked with leniency upon primes which tended perhaps to the destruction of human life, "It is not a question of property at. fill." said his Honour, "it is a question of human lifo hemp: endangered that forces me to do this." Prisoners would he. .sentenced to seven years' imprisonment Avitli hard labour in ]lis Majesty's gaol at "Wellington.—("Evening Post.")