PROOF LACKING

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 08, 8 October 1908, Page 37

PROOF LACKING

' * should thipk Jane Maclntyre would leave school. None of the girls will have anything to do with her ' - '™V not? ' asked Georgine's father. The remark had not been intended f or his ears, tut since he had heard' it, there was no way out of answering the question. ' She took some money out of Laura Wiltsie's pocket. It was a fifty-cent piece.' *. • ' Who saw her take.it?' _ * ' Nobody But she must have done it. She is the only gi r l in the school who ,s poor enough so that she'd ever think of sea ing what didn't belong to her. And, besides,, she was in the cloak room after the bell rang.' ' Georgine's father shook his head. • I'm afraid you wou , dn , t vnu T7x ° n S lUry ' WY takCS t0 ° Httle to conv^ you. -A girl is poor, and so she would .steal. She is alone in a room with money which can't. be found, and so she has- stolen.' There is an old principle of law which has give Q satisfaction after being tested a great many centuries, and that is Z I treat' an accused man as innocent till he is proven guilty. It would be worth your while to remember this.' - ' interes e t°to in tdr mC hpme - ** "**' W ' th somethin « of 'What do you think, papa? Laura found 'that fifty-cent piece in the lining of her coat. It. had slipped through a hole she didn t know was there. And the girls who treated Jane horrid are so ashamed that they don't know what to do. Next time. l won't believe anybody guilty till it's proved.' '