PITIABLE CASE.

Northern Advocate, 1 February 1921, Page 3

PITIABLE CASE.

POSTAL EMPLOYEE \S CRIME

STEAL,S MONEY FROM A LETTER,

"Every person in the Post and Telegraph Department is m a position of trust and under great responsibility. The public would not have faith in public institutions if prisons who stole letters were free to do tbai sort of thing without punishment." These remarks were made Y.y .Mr Justice Herlman in the Supreme Court at Christchurch on Friday, in sentencing Adam Morrison Rattray, a postal employee, to three months' imprisonment with hard labour, for the theft of a letter containing £5. In extenuation, Mr 0. T. J. Alpers submitted that Rattray had been already punished by heavy monetary loss. In three years ho was to retire from the service with a pension of £215 per nnnum. He had beeii dismissed from the service, and had mat'e a sorry mess ! of his otherwise unblemished career, j The prisoner had been a volunteer of. fleer, in Canterbury for 25 years. Jle ' received a salary of !i?>2o per year, mid

was under no financial stress. Ho was occasionally addicted to >lrink, ami in one'of liis "bursts" he yielded to a temptation to steal a letter which he knew contained £5.

His Honour, in sentencing the prisoner, said the case was a pitiable one, and he would extend the benefits of .the Probation Act to Eattrav" if he' could. His ago and service record would be. taken into account.