THEFT FROM PETONE HOTEL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 250, 16 July 1920, Page 8

THEFT FROM PETONE HOTEL

A PORTER ROBS THE BAR. Before Messrs. J. Kerr and J. H, Burn, JIVs; at a sitting of the Potone Court yesterday morning, Andrew Paulson, alias Poison,.alias Poulson, alias Andrews, appeared on n charge of stealing th® sum of ,'J!S lGs. 6d., nad a quantity of liquor from the Empire Hotel, Petone. W N. J. Donovan, licensee of the hotel, stated tl(at on or about July 1 he engaged accused as a porter. On July 7 witness itsid his wife went to Wellington. Just prior to leaving for Wellington witness visited the bar, in which were kept two cash registers, and it was his practice to leave about >£K in small change in them. On examining the cash registers next morning ho found tfclat all tho silver had been removed. He also found tlmt the door leading into tho bar from the porch was unlocked and that two of tho window catches wero broken. A bottle of alo, and a bottle and two Husks of whiskv had also disappeared. Senior-Sergeant Bird said that on tho morning of July 8 ho arrested accused in Petone. A search of accused at the police station revealed tfcht he hod in (lis possession 109 threepenny pieces 3G sixpenny pieces, 8 single shillings, 1G two shilling piccre, 10 two shillings and sixpenny pieces, a ono pound note, and Ha'pence halfpenny in coppers. Accused pleaded guilt)' and was committed to thn Supremo Court for sentence.

been oordially received in their sectarian campaign by the l'rime Minister himself. .Now Ido not lielieve a word oT"this Inst part, bocauso whatever the Prime Minister may bo, ho is no fool; and evorybody but a fool knows that to identify oneself with sectarianism is. to use tlio words of a distinguished ftliowcountiyman and co-religionist of Mr. Massey's, 'the last refuse of a defeated politician.' Tho history of these Dominions especially, lias proved the truth of this statement over and ov,er again. "These attacks are not made in the interests of education, as any thinking man may eeo at once. They aro not mado in the interests of religion or Protestantism, for the people who mako theni norer; darken the door of a church, except to celebrate tho anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. Tlio intelligence of their interest in tho work of education may be judged from tho remark one of them made a couple of months ago, 'that tho public scholarships were for tho benefit of the State schools only, and not for that of private schools.' I used to think, and so do most people, that tho scholarships are for the benefit of the children who are the future citizens upon whom the wclfaro of the Dominion will depend, and that they were not established for the benefit of any particular brand of school. But it is useless to appeal to reason or logic when you are dealing with people who are blinded by religious hatred and rancour, and who care for nought but to injure their Catholic fel-low-citizens. Education, as I have said, does not count with them, neither does religion.

Catholics Will Defend Their Rights.' "Catholics are only a seventh of tho community, but wo have all the rights of ordinary citiwns, and we mean to defend them to the last. We do not attack Protestants, or 6eek to infringe on any of their rights as citizens. How could wo, even if we would, seeing that wo aro in tho minority! 1 But let it be clearly understood, that if our rights on education or on any other matter nro unjustlv attacked, wo aro going to 001110 out into tho open and' defend them vigorously. And if anyone, lie it politician or Mctarian bigot hits us, we are going to hit lwck, and hit hard, too, Wc would bo very poor creatures if we did not. And then will be seen what paltry Influence thip wretched sectarianism has upon public opinion. We Catholics, as I said elsewhere tho other day, have been ploughing our lonely furrow in tho matter of religious education in New Zealand for tho past forty years, but there «aro signs that our example has not bren lost upon others, and tlmt' two at least of the larger denominations aro coming round to our way of thinking. Wo welcome the change, nnd wc see in it tho hope of better fKings for religion and for the Dominion in tho future. In tho meantime, lot us apply ourselves to help every movement that will make for tho religious welfare, as well as for the p"aee, unity and happiness of the poop'.e of New Zealand." •