PRISONERS SENTENCED

Evening Star, Issue 23100, 28 October 1938, Page 12

PRISONERS SENTENCED

MAORI'S CRIMINAL ASSAULT "WOULD BE LYNCHED IN U.S.A." (Per United Press Association.] HAMILTON, October 28. Committed for sentence from Taumarunui on a charge of making a false declaration to the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Robert Henry Stratton (36), a gardener, of Hukapapa, was admitted to probation for 12 months by Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Hamilton to-day. “ This offence is one that is looked upon as of the greatest gravity, but it is apparent that you have not been altogether responsible for your actions, clue to the fact that you have been drinking too much,” commented His Honour in sentencing Hoti Mohi (22), a Maori labourer, of Owahou, who pleaded guilty at Rotorua to a charge of assault with intent to commit rape. For the offence, committed at Ngongotaha on October 14, prisoner was sentenced to four years’ reformative detention.

“If we are to believe the newspapers.” said His Honour to the prisoner, “ there are some parts of the United States, for example, where you would have been lynched for such an offence as this.”