THEFT OF CATTLE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3447, 24 March 1932, Page 5

THEFT OF CATTLE

SMALL FARMER CONVICTED.

12 MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT,

A farm labourer, who, according to his counsel, went cattle droving with a whisky bottle in place of a stock whip, was sentenced by Mr. Justice Reed in the Supreme Court on Monday to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour for the theft of cattle.

The prisoner asserted that his name was William Fordham, although he admitted various convictions against him many years ago under the name of Cameron.

Counsel for the prisoner said that Fordham had been living for 13 or 14 years on a small farm at Puketutu, near Te Kuiti. He worked at Westfield for part of the year and bought 19 head of cattle to take back with him to the farm. He set out to drive them 120 miles with a bicycle, a dog and a bottle of whisky instead of a stock whip. As he went along he did not seem to notice that the herd was increasing in size. He was intercepted near Mercer, where it was found that he had 12 head of cattle that did not belong to him. His whole conduct was rather that of a drunken fool than of a criminal. He had no chance whatever of "rustling" other people's cattle in broad daylight on the main highway. His Honour, commenting that it would possibly be in the man's own interest to be kept away from whisky for a time, imposed a sentence of 12 months' hard labour.