UNDER CRITICISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 252, 25 October 1933, Page 8

UNDER CRITICISM.

FOREMAN'S CONDUCT. SUPERVISION OF. CAMPS. COMPLAINT BY COUNSEL. The conduct of a foreman placed in charge of young men in a relief camp was severely criticised by Mr. W. Noble, who appeared for three young men who were before the Police Court this morning. The accused were lan Cameron Colquhoun (22), Donald Innes Riach (20), and William Dingle (21), and they were jointly charged with stealing, at Pukemiro, oil September 14, a three-gallon keg of beer valued at £1 12/6, belonging to Thomas Allardyce, of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes Lodge; theft of a bottle of whisky and 15 bottles of beer, valued at £1 10/, the property of . the Masonic Lodge, I'ukemiro, and, on the same date, with committing mischief by wilfully damaging stores, locks, a cupboard and glassware, of a total value of £10, belonging to the Masonic Lodge. The three accused pleaded guilty. Detective-Sergeant O'Sullivan said all three young men had been dealt with on other charges in the Supreme Court last Friday, Dingl*. being sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, Colquhoun to six months, while Riach was admitted to probation. On September 14 all three accused visited the Masonic Hall and the Buffaloes Lodge hall at Pukemiro and stole the beer and spirits and committed the damage mentioned in the charges. These offences were known to the judge in. the Supreme Court when he sentenced all three accused. The present charges were brought to dispose of the matters. Mr. Noble said he had some observations to make concerning the facts of the cases. "A very shocking state of affairs is disclosed'," lie eaid. "These three young men have never been in trouble before. They had to enter a relief camp or starve. They were placed under the charge of a foreman who gambled with them and won what money they had. He also supplied the young men with a housebreaking implement. The point I wish to make about it is that there is no supervision in these camps, where young men are • placed. There should be an outcry from one end of New Zealand to the other about this regrettable case, but nothing has been said or done. One would have thought that the churches would have had something to say. It is a scandal of the first magnitude and better supervision of these young men. who have to go to cam its or starve, should be exercised." Mr. F. K. Hunt: I don't know anything about the facts, of the other case. I am not going to give them any extra punishment. They will each be convicted and discharged on the present charges. Mr. Noble: The facts were placed before the judge. The foreman I spoke about was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.