Page 5 Advertisements Column 3

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 206, 29 August 1904, Page 5

A somewhat interesting theft case, •aused through a shilling dustpan being left on the Northcote ferry steamer Victoria, was heard by Mr. Kettle, S.M. V in the Police Court to-day, when an elderly feeble man named William Angel .[arfitt was charged with stealing a dustpan, the property of Mrs. Graham, from the steamer. The captain and mate of the Victoria said the parcel containing the dustpan was left on board by a passenger, and Marfitt was seen to go ashore at Auckland with it. He was stopped and arrested, llarfitt, who denied the theft, said an oath that he saw -the address on the parcel, and took it ashore intending to advertise for the owner. "Didn't it occur to you that the proper persons to have the custody of lost articles were the officers of the ship?" queried the magistrate. "1 thought I vras doing right," answered the accused vaguely. Sub-Inspector Black asked Marfitt if he knew that it would have cost at leasthalf-a-erown to have advertised the finding of a shilling article, and the accused's reply wa3 that he did not know then what the article was. "Very difficult to believe you did not intend to make away with it," commented the stipendiary, who dealt leniently with Marfitt owing to his age and state of health, convicting him and or- ! dering him to come >up for sentence if called upon, (