SHEEP-STEALING CHARGE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27860, 7 January 1956, Page 8

SHEEP-STEALING CHARGE

ALLEGED THEFT OF 320 HEAD FARM MANAGER GIVEN BAIL (New Zealand Press Association) WAIPUKURAU. January 8. A man was arrested late this afternoon on a charge of stealing 320 sheep from the property of Mr A. W. Kibblewhite. near Takapau. on December 27. He is Ross Henry Hedge, aged 28. a farm manager. Hedge appeared in the Magistrate’s Court at Waipukurau before Messrs J. McCarthy and W. H. L. Williams, Justices of the Peace. He was remanded until January 20. He was released on bail of £2OO. with a surety of a similar amount, a condition being that he reports to the police twice a week. Hedge, who is in charge of a property owned by the estate of H. P. Hole, a short distance from Mr Kibblewhite’s farm, was not represented by counsel. He was charged with the theft of 320 heavily-woolled Romney cross sheep, valued at £l6OO. Detective-Sergeant A. P. Jesson told the Court that the sheep had been recovered as the result of teamwork by the police and farmers in the district. He had no objection to the accused being released on bail, but asked that the figure be substantial. Originally. 352 sheep were alleged to have been stolen, but when the mob was mustered on the Hole estate today. Mr Kibblewhite was able to identify only 320. When found today, the 320 sheep had been shorn. Some other sheep of the original mob of 352 had been found during police inquiries.