Distinctions

Distinctions

bench, church court, Cope, County Court, court, crime, criminal classes, criminal justice, criminal law, ecclesiastical court, General Sessions, judge, judiciary, judicial, justice, Kalgoorlie, law, legal profession, magistrate, Nolan, offence, punishment, Quinlan, religion, sentence, sessions, Skinner, tribunal, WA, Western Australia

In this article from the Kalgoorlie Western Argus, an opening statement about the strength and integrity of the County Court bench in 1900 is contrasted with comments about the incompetence of former members of the judiciary. Four judges are identified as having been ‘lame ducks’, the worst of whom was a man named Quinlan. He, the author suggests “was more fitted for an ecclesiastical medieval tribunal than a secular modern court” because he allowed his religious zeal to influence his decisions, sentencing a defendant who stole from a church with much more severity that one who stole from a private dwelling. “These distinctions between the house of God and that of plain Bill Smith may be acceptable in older countries”, the article continues, “but not in this new land”.

Anon.

National Library of Australia

Kalgoorlie Western Argus

17 May 1900, p. 25.

Kalgoorlie Western Argus

PDF; Newspaper Article

English