Two of the many trials to which Jabez Balfour was
liable have ended this week in convictions. The two selected to be tried first were his conduct in regard to the Lands Allotment Company, and in regard to the House and Land Investment Trust, the accusation in the first case being falsifications of account, with intent to deceive, and in the second direct malversation. He was found guilty in both instances, and was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for each set of offences, one sentence to commence on the expiration of the other. Two of his alleged accomplices in the first case, Brock and Theobald, were also sentenced to nine months' and four months' imprisonment respectively; and one, Dibley, was discharged, the jury disagreeing. The Attorney-General announced that the remaining charges against Balfour would not be proceeded with, and the Liberator trials may thus be considered ended. The sentence on the chief offender is universally approved, and produced a most unusual scene outside the Court. A very large crowd waited hours in the street hungrily anxious to hear the sentence, and when it was announced it was received with a storm of cheers. Balfour, unlike most of his kind, betrayed multitudes of poor men, and was regarded with an amount of popular hatred not usually wasted on a swindler.
