JABEZ SENTENCED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5457, 8 January 1896, Page 2

JABEZ SENTENCED.

FOURTEEN YEARS* PENAL

SERVITUDE,

JUDGE'S SCATHING REMARKS.

THB CLOSING SCENE. The further trial of Jabez Balfour, on a charge of having, as a director of the House and Land Investment Trust, fraudulently appropriated large sums of money, was concluded at the end of November. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and the remaining charges were then withdrawn. Balfour, for the first time in the history of the trial, seemed to have realised the nature of his position, his face wearing | a grave and almost melancholy aspect. Balfour's age is fifty-two. The other prisoners in the ' box were Brock and Theobald. THE JUDGMENT OP THE COURT. .The defendants were ordered to stand up. Mr Justice Bruce read his address to them. Addressing Balfour, he said that he had been convicted on two indictments of offences of great gravity, involving frauds in the management of public companies. The charges in the first indictment extended over a series of years, and he believed that he had carried out with great deliberation a long and extensive series of frauds on the companies with which he had been connected. He had been the chief actor in the frauds. He prevailed upon others to assist him in his dishonest practices. But his was the master mind. He planned and directed and controlled the machinery by whicli the public had been imposed upon. He was satisfied that he (Balfour) had 'procured, large sums of money, which he had applied to his own purposes. He was, he continued, obliged to pass upon the de-: fendant a very severe sentence. It was a most painful thing to have to do upon a, man of great ability of a very high order, but justice and the protection of the commercial honour of a great trading nation demanded it. It had been suggested that during the period during which his fraudulent practices had been carried on, if there had been more commercial prosperity these affairs might have turned out successfully., Success might haye covered the fraud, and prevented the discovery ; but success could not turn fraud into honesty. His lordship concluded by saying that it was his duty, and the duty of all those who administered the law, to make it plain that those who were guilty of commercial fraud wero just as deserving of severe- punishment as thoso who were guilty of whatwascalledamefe vulgar fraud. Balfour had darkened thousands of humble homes. No prison walls could shut out from him the wail of the widow and the orphan whom he had' ruined. The punishment which he would hate to undergo would be one of 3even years' imprisonment with hard labour oti each of the counts of the first indictment on which he had been found guilty, the sentences to run concurrently. And on the second indictment the sentence would also be one of seven years on each count, to run concurrently, the one period of seven years to commence when the other had expired, making fourteen years in all. , Brock was sentenced to be imprisoned for nine months, and Theobald for four months. The jurors in the case were, excused from being summoned as jurors during the next three years. ■WHAT BA__FOTJB*S SENTENCE MEANS. 7

. It is understood th&t the conTicfcßalf otir, : togethef .with. Brock and Theipbald, .-were transferred 'on Thursday, high - )*, from Holloway Gaol to Fentonville Prison, where the preliminaries of their- respective sentences will be undergone. Brock- and Theobald will, it is unjierstood, complete their ternis of imprisonment in metropolitan prisons, the former at.Wormwood Scrubbs and the latter at Pentonyille. In the case of Balfour, after the preliminary of his sentence at Pentonville and Wormwood Scrubbs, a process occupying between six and nine months, he will be remitted to one of the ...penal "-SiabliSlrments — Dartmoor or Portlan--,— in. the discretion of the Prison 'Board. . Eegarding the sentence of fourteen years,' Balfour, always supposing his conduct is good and his health is maintained, will serve actually about ten years and four months in prison, after which s perio-d it is customary , to grant the prisoner a ticket-of-le'ave for the remainder of the term. Balfour may, therefore, expect his release at the commencement of 1906. Once in Pentonville all the privileges that \ the convict has enjoyed at Holloway since May 6 last, when he was brought from Argentina, will be forfeited, the civilian dress. which he has* worn in Holloway,. and appeared in at the court, being substituted by the convict garb, and* prison diet for the comparatively sumptuous meals with which he has been permitted to provide himself while awaiting trial. A FAREWELL BOTTLE OF BASS. After sentence had been pronounced on the Liberator directors on Thursday; the court was cleared of all save a few pressmen before Balfour was removed, and, upon a Holloway warder making his appearance, that prisoner said, "I'm ready," whereupon>the officer replied, " This way, sir," pointing to the small, trap-like exit j under the Judge's bench, and immediately Iby the side of the reporters' box. While proceeding to a room at the end, Balfour said to the warder, "I should like some lunch, if there is no objection." After placing him in the room, the warder, having ascertained his prisoner's choice of viands, brought him some cold beef and pickles, with a large bottle df Bass. Balfour's lunch was cut up (he not being allowed a knife and fork), and he drank the Bass off at a draught; THE. SENTENCES. The sentences passed on the variouß members of the Balfour gang are as follows : — ' Jabez Balfour... ... ... ... 14 years • Wright (solicitor to the group)... 12 years Hobbs (chief builder to. the group) 12 years Newman (builder) ... ...' ... 5 years Brock (director) 9 months Theobald (director)... 4 months The men are aged respectively : — Jabefe Balfour, 52 years;' Wright, 55 years; Hobbs, 45 years ; Newman, 48 years ; Brock, 46 years ; and Theobald, 73 years. VICTIMS OF THE FRAUDS. It will be remembered that directly after the "Liberator" crash at the end of the year 1893 the Eev J. Stockwell Watts promoted the " Liberator Eelief Fund" to aid many ruined victims. The number who have applied for relief in consequence of their being brought to a destitute or semidestitute' condition through the "Liberator " is 2629, a large proportion^ whom are aged and invalid. Up to the present the total sum raised reaches <£58,00Q, in about 25,000 separate sums. From this the committee have made 7460 separate grants to the sufferers, and over 500 of the most aged have been placed beyond the reach of want by the investment of sufficient funds in Consols to provide for their remaining years. One hundred and five deaths of victims on the books of the fund have occurred, according to the medical certificate, through the shock of their loss. I