The Star. MONDAY, JULY 13 1885.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5360, 13 July 1885, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, JULY 13 1885.

Eknbst Eola.nd Davis, aliat E. A. E,. Seid, alias James E. Oliver, aliat A. EReid — or any other name which he nmy have polluted — has found that for which he clamoured. In the course of an exceedingly long and most patiently conducted investigation, Davis made it known that he stood in the dock foi justice. He ha» got it. The trader on religion, the utterer of a forged document; the betrayer of woman, has at last discovered that there i* justice in New Zealand, and that his share thereof was not to be withheld. Probably in the criminal annals of this Colony there iB no case on record in which a prisoner was more persistent in his endeavours to torment the witnesses, more wearisome in irrelevant comment, or more over-reaching 1 in cunning. He was allowed every inch of rope he chose to take, and the proverbial result followed. If there had been a lingering doubt in the mind of any juror at the close of the case for the prosecution in the charge of " administering laudanum witk intent/ the doubt must have been effectually removed by the evidence of the •witnesses whom the prisoner chose to call. In this issue we publish an outline of thie man's New Zealand career. His Colonial history has not been a long one, but into it he has managed to compress an extraordinary amount of wickedness. Pretended clergyman, insurance agent, Maori missionary, ardent lover, pastor of the faithful, temperance lecturer, and canvassing agent — all sorts of cunning dodges were tried, and all failed, none too soon. It was this low cunning, upon which, he so evidently prided himself, that materially aided in his conviction. Thig rotten, reed left him exposed as a muddy-brained villain at best, for whom nothing but loathing and contempt could be felt. Thin shallow-pated scoundrel vaunted his diabolio treachery, flourishing, with braggart oarelessness, the drug he has without hesitation been declared guilty of using. H» convicted himself, the Judge declared, over and over again. It would have been a great public calamity if the perpetrator of so much "wickedness, baseness, cowardice, and brutality " had, by reason of any technicality, failed to get that |ustioe for which he yearned. Therefore, although a graver charge might have been formulated against him, ire share in the opinion that there was muoh wisdom in the line adopted by the prosecution. For fifteen years, should he live so long, this "social nuisance" ■nill be able to meditate uj>on an axiom whioh possibly he may have made use of ia the course of his religious ' imposture, that " Justice, though her doom she do prolong, Yet at the last will make her own cause right."