YOUTHS IN COURT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 27 May 1938, Page 2

YOUTHS IN COURT

t THEFT OF BENZINE. JUSTICE’S "ADMONITION. Four youths appeared in the .Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Messrs A. 1 J. Graham and C.-L. Mowlem, J.P.’s, having been remanded from Wanganui where they appeared before the Magistrate. Mr J. H. Salmon, on Wednesday. The youths were Eric Albert Collins. Albert Edward Morris, and Robert Walter Page, all labourers, aged 18, and David Ross, aged 16, a labourer, all of Wellington. They were jointly charged that on or about May 21, at Te Horo, they stole 14s 7d, the property of Albert Arthur Rolfe, and also that on May 21 at Wellington they unlawfully and without colour of right,' but not s,o as to be guilty of theft, converted to their own use a motor-car valued at £3OO, the property of Margaret Kember.’ Morris was charged with the theft at Wellington on February 23 of postage stamps valued at 9s la, the'property of the De Luxe Shoe Stores. Ross was charged that on December 16, at Wellington, he stole postage stamps of the value ot 2s sd, the property of the De Luxe Shoe Store., All entered pleas of guilty to the charge of the theft of the benzine and the three oldest were convicted and discharged, in view of a sentence ■ yesterday of three years’ Borstal detention. The youngest was admonished and discharged. On the other charges they were remanded to appear before a Magistrate in Wellington to-day, the police explaining that they' were members ot a Wellington “gang.” “These four youths stole a car in Wellington ,on May 21 and got as far as Te Horo where they 1 broke open a bowser belonging to Mr Rolfe,” _ said Detective-Sergeant A. B. Meiklejohn, “and took benzine valued at 14s 7d and a pair of pliers. They went to Hawera and abandoned the car there, stole another car, and were arrested at Wanganui. On v the Hawera charge they were dealt with at Wanganui on Wednesday, and the three eldest boys sentenced to three years’ Borstal detention. The youngest was committed to the Child Welfare Department with a recommendation that he be sent to Weraroa.”

“It is a very sad thing to see youths like you standing in the dock,” said Mr Graham. “Do you not realise what you are heading for? Three of you are now committed to the Borstal Institute and the other to Weraroa. There you will have a chance to make good. You may be perfectly sure that a life of crime will not get you anywhere. History shows that. As for the boy of 16, you have had onportunities before. I hope you will fully realise the dangerous path you are treading. In that you are an expense to the State, which would rather you became a good citizen. Think over it ,and see if you cannot make up your minds to abandon this game. There are plenty of opportunities in New Zealand for boys of your calibre to make good. I would be very pleased in three or four years to hear thta you have made good.”