Judgement

Consolidated Appeal (No. 42 of 1934) by special leave from four orders of the High Court made in May and June, 1933.

The orders appealed from were made by Lort-Williams and McNair JJ. upon petitions of appeal, under

s. 419 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, by which the respondents severally appealed against convictions and sentences ordered by a criminal Court of first instance. In each case when the petition was before the Court for the purposes of s. 421 of the Code, and the prosecution not represented, the Court ordered a reduction of the sentence without the notices required by s. 422 having been given, or the record sent for in accordance with s. 423 of the Code.

The facts, the material sections of the Code, and the grounds upon which the learned judges supported the orders appear from the judgment of the Judicial Committee.

Upon the application for special leave to appeal reference was made to observations in the judgment of the Board in Reg. v. Bertrand (( 1867) 1 P. C. 520, 530.), in which the Crown successfully appealed by special leave upon a question of criminal procedure in New South Wales.

The Crown did not ask that there should be any interference with the