YOUTHS IN MASKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20185, 1 March 1940, Page 4

YOUTHS IN MASKS

DAMAGE AT JERUSALEM NOCTURNAL PROWLINGS MAORI LADS GAOLED (Special to tbn Herald.) RUATORIA, this day. The nocturnal prowlings of a group of six masked Maori youths at Jerusalem were described to Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Ruatoria Police Court yesterday by Constable J. W. Birch, Ruatoria. Three of the accused, John Monika, Hura Pohatu, and Whare McLean, who pleaded guilty, were sentenceo to one week’s imprisonment. The charges against Mana Hunia and Robert Tu Hura, who had since enlisted and gone to military camp, were withdrawn. The charge against the youths was that they were found on February 18 without lawful excuse on the enclosed premises of the Himharama Native School.

Constable Birch, pi-osecuting, said that much trouble had been caused in the district by the . actions of irresponsible Maori youths. Logs had been placed across roads and homes had been visited during the early hours of the morning. The six accused had banded together arid made masks. They visited ■'no house in the early morning of February. 18 and then disappeared in the direction of the schoolhouse. They rang the schooi bell and shouted, awakening many of the residents. Then the youths collected stones and apples from a nearby orchard and threw them at the school buildings. At daybreak it was found that soaic'of the school outbuildings had been broken into, a postbox had been smashed, and gates had been removed from their hinges. The sixth accused appeared in the Children’s Court and was admonished and discharged.