Street could be obtained, two more salmon tins were found,
all three similar to the five purchased by Butler on the Sunday morning,
two of which had been in his possession at the time of his arrest.

Such were the main facts of the case which Butler had to answer when,
a few weeks later, he was put on his trial before the Supreme Court at
Dunedin. The presiding judge was Mr. Justice Williams, afterwards Sir
Joshua Williams and a member of the Privy Council. The Crown Prosecutor,
Mr. Haggitt, conducted the case for the Crown, and Butler defended
himself.

II

THE TRIAL OF BUTLER

To a man of Butler's egregious vanity his trial was a glorious
opportunity for displaying his intellectual gifts, such as they were.
One who had known him in prison about this time describes him as a
strange compound of vanity and envy, blind to his own faults and envious
of the material advantages enjoyed by others. Self-willed and arrogant,
he could bully or whine with equal effect. Despising men, he believed
that if a man did not possess some requisite quality, he had only to ape
it, as few would distinguish between the real and the sham.

But with all these advantages in the struggle for life, it is certain
that Butler's defence would have been far less effective had be{sic}
been denied all professional aid. As a matter of fact, throughout his
trial Butler was being advised by three distinguished members of the New
Zealand bar, now judges of the Supreme Court, who though not appearing
for him in court, gave him the full benefit of their assistance
outside it. At the same time Butler carried off the thing well. Where
imagination was required, Butler broke down; he could not write sketches
of life in prison; that was too much for his pedestrian intellect. But
given the facts of a case, dealing with a transaction of which he alone
knew the real truth, and aided by the advice and guidance of trained
intellects, Butler was unquestionably clever and shrewd enough to make
the best use of such advantages in meeting the case against him.

Thus equipped for the coming struggle, this high-browed ruffian, with
his semi-intellectual cast of countenance, his jerky restless posturing,
his splay-footed waddle, "like a lame Muscovy duck," in the graphic
words of his gaol companion, stood up to plead for his life before the
Supreme Court at Dunedin.

It may be said at the outset that Butler profited greatly by the
scrupulous fairness shown by the