NEEDLESS EXPENSE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 422, 27 February 1890, Page 2

NEEDLESS EXPENSE.

The case of Riwai te Kauru, who was yesterday acquitted at the Supreme Court on a charge of forgery, is an example of the expense to which the country may sometimes be put when such cases are sent to the Supreme Court Though the accused was discharged on a law point raised by Mr Bees, His Honor Air Justice Conolly explicitly stated that in any case he would have advised the Jury that there was a very weak case against the accused. Our remarks at the time the native was committed have a significance which entitle them to reproduction, and therefore we reprint them to show the application they had to the case: —

The case against Riwai te Kauru, for forgery, is a somewhat peculiar one, but even if all the facts are admitted, we do not think it amounts to the crime of which the prisoner is charged, and we are surprised to see Mr Booth send it for trial. The Maori had two cheques in his possession which he had endeavored to get cashed. These ciieques.'subsequently to their being drawn, were altered. It is unquestionable that had the alterations been material, the person who made them would be guilty of forgery. In this case, however, the addition of a figure was so palpable that no person could have been deceived, unless, indeed, he were very shortsighted. Had anyone been deceived, and the cheques (been cashed, it would have pnt a different face on matters, but there was no evidence that the cheque had ever left the possession of the prisoner. There may, of course, be more in |the case than has come out in tbe preliminary investigation, but the Magistrate has to be satisfied that there is a prima facie ease against the accused, [and we scarcely think he was justified in putting! the country to the expense of trying the case.