REFUSED ORDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 10

REFUSED ORDERS.

ROTOROA INMATE CHARGED. DISLIKED " CAULIFLOWER LOAD." TO TRY GAOL BARROWS. Dissatisfied with the large loads carried in wheelbarrows used on Rotoroa Island, George Keenan (36), a labourer and for some time an inmate of the inebriates' home down the gulf, was this morning given an opportunity to test the wheelbarrows in use at Mount Eden prison. Keenan was charged at the Police Coxirt to-day with refusing the orders of Staff Captain Buttimore. He pleaded not guilty. Staff Captain Buttimore, of the Salvation Army, which controls the Rotoroa Island, said Keenan wae placed on the island by tne Wellington Court on May 5 last. Witness said that when Keenan worked, he worked well. However, he had been giving trouble recently. Ho had been working with an employee on a launch, but was taken off this job, as the employee would not have him.

Keenan disobeyed his orders. Keenan left with other inmates to work last Tuesday, but he had a difference with them, downed tools and went back to tho Home. Witness looked for Keenan, and found him in bed. Keenan refused to turn to again, although witness gave him several chances. Keenan BaM J

would sooner go to gaol than work

When invited to ask the staff captain questions, Keenan commenced an oration about the wheelbarrows used in carting sand on board a pontoon. "Look here, staff," he said, "you know as well as I do that one of the men working wth me was heaping up too much sand on them barrows. In .the first place the planks over which we had to wheel the barrow on to the pontoon were far too short. The load put on the barrow was a cauliflower load, and it was a horse's job to carry it. not one for me.

Mr. Hunt said he was not concerned about the loads of barrows. What he wanted to know was whether Keenan refused the orders of the staff captain. Keenan denied that he did so. Mr. Hunt: You are right then, and I'm not to believe what the witness has told me?— That's right. Mr. Hunt: Well, you can go up to Mount Eden prison for a month and see what you think of the barrows in that place."