MAORIS AND THEFT.
SUGGESTION RESENTED. NOT A RACE OF THIEVES. AUCKLAND, Dee. 19. When a young Maori came up for sentence to-day on a charge of breaking, entering and theft, Mr G. P. Finlay made a strong plea for leniency. He said that by training and heredity the Maori did not have the same respect for property as the pakeha. A petty theft would not be regarded by the Maori mind in the same light as something bigger, and he suggested that breaking and entering would be considered more manly. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr Meredith, said that though Mr Finlay couched his speech in well-chosen words there was a suggestion that the Maori was a thief by heredity. Such a statement would be resented by the native race and friends of the Maori. Mr Justice Frazer claimed that he had had much to do with natives when stationed in the north, and nobody could say that tribal customs permitted theft from each other. Mr Meredith said the argument had ben put up that the Maoris had been raiding warriors and sneak thieves. The Judge sent the Maori (aged 22) to a Borstal Institute for two years.
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 20, 21 December 1928, Page 9
Word Count
196MAORIS AND THEFT. Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 20, 21 December 1928, Page 9
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