THE GLAMOUR OF WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 5

THE GLAMOUR OF WAR.

VENTURESOME LAD'S STORY.

WANTED TO GO THE FRONT.

A 14-TEAR-OU3-BOY, -whose case was called on in the Court on Thursday, and was adjourned because it was eaid that he was suffering from appendicitis, appeared before Mr. F. V. Frazer in the Juvenile Court yesterday. A charge against him of being an idle and disorderly person was withdrawn on the application of the police. A second charge, that of stealing a dinghy, valued at £8, was then preferred against him. Senior-Sergeant Rutledge said the lad's parents lived at Palmerston North. On Thursday week last he had taken a sum of money from his mother's bedroom, and had left Palmerston North for Marton. He had stayed there for one day, and had then come north to Auckland. He had gone to the waterside and had taken a dinghy and rowed across to Devon port. He tied the boat to the Ferry Jetty and had gone back to Auckland by the ferry boat. After visiting a picture theatre he had returned to Devonport, but discovered that the dinghy had gone. The police at Devonport had found him on the Ferry Jetty shortly before • midnight. He had been * taken into custody, and, complaining of being ill, a doctor had been summoned. A sum of 14e M had thus been incurred in expenses, which the boy's father, who had since been called to* Auckland by the police, had paid. Questioned by the magistrate, the lad said that he had left home because he wanted to go to the war. The magistrate said the case was not; really one of theft, it was more one of illegally borrowing the dinghy. He admonished the lad, and warned him a« to his future conduct. The charge was then dismissed, and the boy was returned to the custody of his parents.