MANIA FOR MACHINERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 11

MANIA FOR MACHINERY.

YOUTH APPROPRIATES CAR. COSTLY PRICE OF BRAVADO. [DY TCIJSGRAPJI. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHIUSTCHURCII. Friday. As the result of appropriating a motor-car valued at £SOO, the property of Captain Tabu Rhodes, a law clerk, aged 17, was to-day fined £5 and ordered to pay for damage done, roughly £2O. Mr. Sim appeared for the accused, whose name was suppressed. Counsel described the case, as a curious one. Ho said the youth was employed by a firm of city solicitors. Till yesterday ho had an unblemished reputation; in fact it was exceedingly high. The boy had been well educated and came from a good family. It was difficult to say why ho should have taken a motor-car. but a possible explanation was that he had a mania for machinery and spent most of his timo tinkering about with engines. Apparently the passion overcame him. Ho took the car and went for a drive, and 'evidently the engine stalled on him in Wools ton. There was nothing criminal in his act; it was done perhaps in a stupid spirit of bravado. "I would ask Worship to treat this case with the greatest, possible leniency," said Mr. Sim. "The commission of the act carries its own penalty, but I would say that the severity of the punishment might shadow this young man's life." Tho magistrate said the bench looked npon such offences as serious. There had been far too many. Considering the r.ge of the accused imprisonment would not bo inflicted in this case. In future, however, imprisonment would bo the only penalty.