PRISONERS SENTENCED

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 118, 12 February 1920, Page 5

PRISONERS SENTENCED

A BOY CRIMINAL. In the Supreme Court yesterday momins His Honour Mr. Jtistice Edwards passed sentence on two prisoners who had pleaded guilty in the Lower Court to certain charges. An undersized boy named William Walker, who had pleaded guilty at Palmorston North to committing arson, was the first'to be placed in the dock. The ■prisoner, who is sixteen years and four months old. could scarcely see over the rail of the dock.

His Honour, addressing the lad, said: "It is a shocking thing to- have to send a boy of your ago to prison; but I have no alternative hut to do so. You -were born in Auckland in 1903, and until July, 1919. vou lived with your parents. On Julv 9. 1919, vou ran away from home and vou placed an obstruction on the railway line. That was a. shocking thing to do. for it meant endangering the lives of many people. You evidently wanted to 6ee a train smash. You -were convicted of that offence, and leniently treated— too leniently. for you were ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. You again absconded from liomt!, and committed theft, and for that offence vou were sent to the Salvation Army Training Farm, and nt .that place you burnt down two farm buildings. You were then sent to the Boys' Training Farm at Wereroa, and there you burned down buildings of considerable value, and destroved the farm manager' 6 furniture of the value of ,£SOO. You appear to have a mania for setting fire to buildings, and you are a menace to society. With this record I cannot let j*ou be in a position to destroy property again. I shall - send. vou to the, Prisons Board, which is presided over by the Chief Justice. who has a number of benevolent men associated with him, and they will let vou out on probation when they .think fit." The bov was sentenced to two years' reformative treatment. DEFRAUDING THE POST' OFFICE.. Leslie George Eraser, 19 years of age, a tailo~'s presser,'. who pleaded guilty at the Magistrate's Court, Wellington, to defrauding the Post Offico Savings Bank of the sum of JE3O, was the other prisoner who was sentenced. The father of the lad obtained permission to address the Court. He said that his son was not a bad boy, and he was onlv 'nineteen years of age. He begged Hii Honour to treat the lad leniently. His Honour: I will be as lenient as I Ran.

Addressing the prisoner, His Honour said the young man had been guilty of a contemptible crime, and ivas really euiltv of two crimes. He found the Post Office Savings Bank book, belonging to Hubert J. Thompson, of Petone, on January 21. and on that day he went to t.ho Post Office, filled in a -withdrawal slii> for „C3O, forged the name of Thompson and obtained the money, which ho snent in the city. Three days later, on January 24, prisoner presented another withdrawal slip, this time for .£SO, but the Post Office officials had already been advised bv Thompson of the loss of his book, and prisoner was detained. "I cannot allow that to pass ove,r," said His Honour. "I will send you to the Prisons Board, who will release you on Drobation as soon as they think proper tn do so."

Eraser was sentenced to two years' reformative treatment.

CASES AT WANGANUJ, By Telegraph—Press Appociatbn. Wanganui, Fejff'in'y 11. At the Supreme Court, Jolm Elvyn Byrne, Richard Jones, and Archibald Hunter were convicted for Qie theft of ,£■lo from a passenger on th.e Main Trunk express, near Taihape, and were sentenced to three years' reformative treatment. , Thomas'J.' Spalding was convicted of theft and sent to prison for six months. W. E. Cronin, who had pleaded guilty in Hie Lower Court to five cbn.rj;es of theft from dwellings in Wanganui and Pftlmerston North, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent, and was declared an habitual criminal. T. Peapells was fined £a for making a false declaration to the Registrar of Births. Deaths, and Marriages, and Florence L. Suister, for a similar offence, was imprisoned till the rising of the Court.