THEFT OF NEWSPAPER

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 11

THEFT OF NEWSPAPER

Charged with the theft of a newspaper from under a shop door, a woman was fined £2 and 10s costs in the Rotorua Magistrate's Qourt, states a correspondout ox the "New Zealand Herald." For the prosecutiou, it was stated that owing to complaints regarding newspapers having been stolen, a policeman took up a position and detected the defendant stealing a paper. Boys who delivered newspapers had Ijeen dismissed from their situations owing to complaints. Since the projceedings had been instituted no further papers had been taken. Counsel for the defendant said that there had not been. a. cessation of complaints regarding the delivery of newspapers since the case was instituted. The defendant was a respectable married woman with seven children, and she had resided in Kotorua twenty-five years. Her action was inexplicable.-The Magistrate (Mr. S. L. Paterson) said he had a public duty to perform. Although the article stolen was trifling, it hadan intrinsic value, and the act had had a bad effect on the boys who were employed in delivery. In the circumstances he would have to inflict a heavy penalty.