BANK CLERKS' FORGERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14689, 25 May 1911, Page 6

BANK CLERKS' FORGERY.

TWO MEN SENTENCED,

EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN GAOL.

At the Supremo Court criminal sessions yesterday, Charles Kiwi Wilkinson, a halfcaste Maori, and William -Boyd, both young men, who had pleaded guilty to charges of forgery and uttering on the opening day of the sessions, were brought up for sentence.

.Mr. F. Earl appeared for the prisoner Wilkinson, and, in asking for lenient treatment, said prisoner's father was, up to the time of his death, in a high and responsible position in the Civil Service of the Dominion. The prisoner was well educated, and as he showed much promise of being quick at figures, and smart in other studies, his father induced two of his dearest friends to act as his guardians, and for two years ho was placed in a commercial college in Auckland, and there showed such promise that his guardians obtained for him a position in tho Bank of New Zealand, and he was thus removed from the isolated sphere to which he had been accustomed. Mr. Earl asked His Honor to view with leniency and oven charity tho offence prisoner had committed, as ho had been translated from Maoriland to the stress and strain of city life, and the change was not to his advantage. Young Maoris were often found to be fond of "showing off," and vanity and display were with them sometimes strongly marked characteristics. This lad was not a gambler or drunkard, or evil liver. His fondness for good clothes had led him into this trouble. " Nothing wrong had previously been known against him, and his downfall was due to the weaknesses of his race. In his case an experiment had been made to try to make him a pakeha, and that experiment had lamentably failed. Mr. Lundon, appearing for the other prisoner, William Boyd, said his client was a painter by trade, and a native of Dunedin. He had put up at the same boardinghouse in which Wilkinson was staying. He signed the cheque, buj; he did not present it, and ho got no share of the proceeds. He was neither a gambler nor a drunkard, and was utterly unknown to the police. Tho Crown Prosecutor (Mr. Tole) said it was well known that there were many Maoris in the nativo offices in tho Tourists and Justice Departments, and acting as clerks of courts, who seemed to do their work admirably and honestly. This was an exceptional case, and it was only fair to the Maori race to say so. His Honor Mr. Justice Chapman, in passing sentence upon Wilkinson, said he in a largo measure agreed with counsel's observations, but ho could not conscientiously accede to the suggestion that prisoner's caso could bo treated as one for probation. Wilkinson had shown considerable ability in cunningly plotting a swindle upon his employers, and in carrying it out. Ho would be detained for reformative purposes for 18 months on the fust count of tho indictment, and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon on the second.

In the case of the prisoner Boyd, His Honor said ho did not see much difference between his offence and that committed by Wilkinson, and a similar sentence was passed upon him ; but His Honor added that he would make representations to tho Chief Justice, in his capacity as president of the Prisons Board, in regard to both these cases, and calling his attention to their circumstances, and it was possible that both of them might be liberated before they had served the full term of their sentences.