GAVE HIMSELF UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 3

GAVE HIMSELF UP.

WORRIED LABOURER. THEFT OF UNION FUNDS. COURT GRANTS PROBATION. In custody since New Year's Eve, when he walked into the Xcwton police station and asked Constable Leslie to lock him up because he had stolen some money, Joseph Daniels, p.ged 45, a labourer, was given his liberty this morning, when Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., in the Police Court, admitted him to probation for 12 months. Daniels pleaded guilty to a charge of fraudulently omitting to account to the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company's Employees'. Union for money totalling £13 5/t5, received between November 27 and December 14, thereby committing theft. Constable Leslie said he was on duty in the wat*®; house on New Year's Eve when Daniels called and asked to be locked up. He made a statement, which he signed. In this Daniels said he had been appointed a delegate by butcher labourers i».t tlie Southdown freezing works, where he worked, to collect union fees. Of £7 or £8 which he took home with him, he lost £o out of his pocket while lie had been drinking. Daniels said lie had spent the rest of the money. Detective-Sergeant McHugli, who prosecuted, said Daniels, in trying to recover the money he had lost and spent, invested £."1 011 a horse, Gay Seton, at the Auckland races. The horse did not win, and so Daniels lost the money. "This worried him and he could. not sleep, so he gave himself up," added Mr. McHugh. "Daniels has never been in trouble before except one conviction for drunkenness. He was once a wellknown hurdle jockey, but in 1921 he was badly smashed up. The members of his union are anxious to help him, while the manager* of the freezing works is willing to employ him again, as Dpniels is considered to be a decent chap." Mr. Orr Walker considered the case one for probation. No doubt Daniels would make good. In placing Daniels on probation for 12 months the magistrate imposed the special terms that he is to make restitution by instalments, abstain from intoxicating liquor, take out a prohibition order, and refrain from betting on horse races.