WARNING TO TRESPASSERS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 20

WARNING TO TRESPASSERS

. Three ..youtlisv-S. G. Davis, J. J. Cato,' and H.. A. Kreyl—were charged in ■ the Magistrate's;l'Court at Pctone yesterday ■with trespassing cm the property of Eric Eiddiford at Orongorongo, and refusing to leave on being warned. All pleaded not guilty. . Mr. S.-C. Childs, on behalf of the; defendants, admitted that they had been on the property without permission, and that they had been warned. What was in question was the authority of the person who had warned them, This- was ill1. :L. (■!. Kanson, the son 01 the manage!1 "of Riddi- j ford's station!-- As "the'ileiendants did not know who he was, and as he had no writI ten authority,, tliey thought lie ivaii trying:to bluff them out of the hut in which they were, so that lie might occupy it | himself*

The other side of the .story, given by Jlr. Hanson and tho police, was that Mr. Hanson had been authorised both by his father and by Mr. Ridel iford- to warn /off any trespassers. The youths, had no permit, and, though they had said .that they Would ask permission at.the station, they had not- done. so. They stayed on in the tiut>! and'the police were summoned. The defendants had done no damage, and the case-was intended more as a warning to trespassers than anything else. ■. I The Magistrate (Mr. W. H. Woodward) said.that trespassers who disobeyed warnings :to go did so at their own risk. It behovedr them to find out whether' the person ■'■. warning them had authority or nbfi/.He was; not inclined to treat the case seriously,, and on listening to a further' appeal from Mr._. Childs ; that the matter was only a trivial i one, he dismissed the charges, with costs' against the defendants.