A YOUTHFUL OFFENDER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2127, 28 February 1908, Page 2

A YOUTHFUL OFFENDER.

VICTIM OF CIGARETTES. Press Association. AUCKLAND, Feb. 27. At the police court this afternoon, a boy of 15 years, who, 12 months ago, entered on his working career as a messenger, pleaded guilty to the misappropriation of small sums, amounting in all to £l7 13s lOd. The money was filched .in various ways — stealing stamp-retaining money given him for sending telegrams, collecting small accounts, and so on. The lad’s father, who expressed his willingness to make restitution of all deficiencies, explained that tho boy had contracted the cigarette smoking habit, but otherwise he liad always been an apparently good lad. He attributed the dishonesty in a large measure to the effort to ‘obtain the wherewithal to purchase cigarettes. The Bench warned the lad of the danger, moral and physical, to boys who- contracted the cigarette smoking habit, and took him severely to task for yielding to dishonest temptation in order to indulge in tho pernicious habit. In order that ho should not start life with his reputation damaged by a conviction for dishonesty, the Bench decided to give him another chance, calling upon the father to refund the deficiencies and tho court costs.