MAORI'S THEFTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 155, 2 July 1937, Page 7

MAORI'S THEFTS.

SOLVED HIS PROBLEM. LACKED DRESS CLOTHES. GIVEN A CHANCE. Lacking a dress suit and wanting to attend a ball a week or so ago, Joseph Thompson Hapi, a Maori, solved the problem. He borrowed a pair of trousers from a friend aud he .stole the vest and dinner coat. This morning he found himself in the dock in the Police Court, charged with the theft, of these garments, valued at £7 7/. Hapi, described as a musician, aged 27, admitted this charge and also two othere—theft of an overcoat valued at £«, belonging to H. L. Massey, and oil the same date, June 3, with mischief by wilfully damaging a car lock to the extent of £1 •>/.

About Eastertinie Hapi came to Auckland from Wairoa to play League football, eaid Detective-sergeant MeHugh, and recently he had been keeping company with a young woman employed at a private hotel in the city. CJoing there to see her he had gut to know the run of the place. In order to go to a ball Hapi had taken the dinner coat and vest from the room of a boarder. These were later found by a detective in his room. On June 3,"after smashing the lock on the door of a motor car, Hapi stole the overcoat from the car. "It is not often we get a footballer before the Court on euch a charge as this," added Detective-sergeant MeHugh. Mr. Bainbridge.said Hapi was under the influence of liquor at the time the offerees were committed. Counsel thought the case was one in which the magistrate might admit Hapi to probation. He was working and in a. position to make restitution. The clothing had been recovered and undamaged. "I don't like the feature of his breaking into the motor car to steal the overcoat."' said Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M. "There's not much between that and burglary."' However, Mr. Orr Walker would give Hapi a chance. Hapi was admitted to probation for two years and ordered to make good the damage done, to the car lock.