COWBOY’S DEED

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1931, Page 2

COWBOY’S DEED

SETS HAYSHED AFIRE. (By Telegraph —Per Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 15. Jack Mervyn Wiffaii, a nineteen-year-old cowboy, employed at a dairy farm at Ohariu, near Well ngton, plead-u guilty at the Magistraie’s Court to a charge of arson. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Detective Jarrale said that together with a constable, he visited the farm where- the accused was employed in order to inquire about some sheepskins.' While he was questioning the accused about the skins; his employer arrived, and while the detective was conversing, with the employer, accused slipped away. A minute or two later the constable, who was sitting in the car on the road, called out asking where the smoke was coming from. It was then found that the hayshed was afire, and it was destroyed within an hour. The detective assisted the farmer to get out some heifers, which had been put in the shed. In a statement, to the police, tile accused admitted firing the shed, hilt said that he was ndt to blame, maintaining that Ills employer asked him to do it. He added that he knew that there might have been some trouble over a sheepskin ill tho shed,