SUPREME COURT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 805, 7 September 1923, Page 6

SUPREME COURT.

~ POSTMASTER'S CRIME.

{Per Press Assertion. HAMILTON, Sept. 6. . At the Supreme Court Joseph -Harrison -Love, formerly postmaster at Tokaanu was found guilty of forgery and theft. Evidence was' 'given that the prisoner forged a withdrawal slip and a withdrawal receipt in the name of a Maori woman, Queenie ,' Banks, securing £3OO. He was sentenced to two years' reformative treatment. Granville Hunt, a prominent business man of Rotorua, was .found guilty of stealing £l6 from relief funds. Sentence was deferred. •--. an habitxuiTcri'minal. - CHRISTCHURCH, Sept.'6. At the Supreme Court John Griffithswas sentenced to six years' hard labour for attempted serious crime 'atBurwood, three years' hard labour on each of three charges of- breaking and entering, and two years' hard labour on each of three charges of-theft, the tentencek to be concurrent. Mr Jusi ice Reed,, in passing sentence, declared Griffiths an habitual - criminal. 'As an habitual criminal," the Judge (aid, "you will be kept in prison at the discretion of the Prisons Board. It means life if the board, as 1 imagine it will, considers that, a'criminal like you should not be at liberty. You are one of the most, dangerous Criminals 1 have had to deal with." .~' .■ Mr. Donnelly, the Crown Prosecutor, said that a cablegram had.been received stating that Griffiths was, wanted in New South Wales on a .charge of chloroforming a girl in her sleep. , Evidence was given that Griffiths was born at Christchurch. He was sent to the Burnham Industrial School in 1901 and subsequently had a long list of convictions in New Zealand and' Australia, including burglary, indecent assault, and illegally on premis'es. The judge said he would have ordered a flogging if he had not declared Griffiths an habitual criminal.