GREEK THIEVES

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 June 1925, Page 6

GREEK THIEVES

NEW ARRIVALS ACTIVE

(Per Press Association.)

MASTERTON, June 26. “These people have abused hospitality, which this country always extends to strangers and that within a s ror time of their arrival. If I send them to gaol, the punishment will be ielt by innocent children. It is undesirable to have them living in the district, and I accept counsel’s word that they will leave it immediately.” Thus Magistrate Free addressed two foreign women, Rachel Anna Krist and Maiy Rosa Krist, when convicting them and ordering them to come up for sentence if called upon within twelve months on a charge of theft arising out of an incident which occurred in the Club Hotel, Greytown, last Monday, when £4O were extracted from a safe. The two defendants are members of a family of sixteen Greeks who arrived in New Zealand three weeks ago, and have since been leading a gypsy life encamped on the bank of the Waigawa River, three miles from Masterton, and whose principal occupation has been scouting the countryside telling fortunes. The police- stated that the accused induced the hotel licensee’s wife to have her hands ready for producing paper money to create an “atmosphere of the future.” She disclosed a roll of sixty pounds. One of the accused then commanded the subject to look her straight in the face. AV hat happened after that is a mystery, but some time after thq publican found that forty pounds was missing. The women were waylaid at a railway station and almost all the money was recovered.

The accused pleaded guilty and agreed to make full restitution of tho missing money. In convicting the accused the Magistrate said they must leave the district at once.