YOUNG "HIGHWAYMEN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19040, 10 June 1925, Page 12

YOUNG "HIGHWAYMEN."

A WEEK-END ADVENTURE. "SHOOTING AT EVERYTHING." ADMITTED TO PROBATION. •" Apparently they got it into their heads that they should turn highwaymen," remarked Senior-Sergeant McCarthy to Mr. W. Meldrum, S.M., at the Greymouth Magistrate's Court last week. He was referring to two boys, each of whom has jilst reached the age of 16 years. Their names and occupations are: William Low, telegraph messenger, Runanga, and William Brown, rope boy, Rowanui mine. The charges against Low were that on May 30, at Runanga, ho stole a bay mare, valued at £25; a saddle, valued at £2; a .22 calibre Remington repeating rifle, valued at £6; and a butcher's knife, valued at 4s 6d. Brown was charged with the theft of a bay gelding, valued at £2O; a saddle, valued at £4; and of the rifle.

" These charges do' not by any means exhaust the list they have piled up during 24 hours," said the senior-sergeant. He described how the boys started on their adventure from Runanga on Saturday evening. They purchased six packets of .22' calibre cartridges, stole an automatic rifle, and " amused themselves by shooting at anything and everything along the road." A fine heifer had been found shot dead. They slept in an old shed on Saturday night and continued their ride northwards on Sunday, being arrested in the afternoon near Punakaiki by Constable Houston, who pursued them in a motor-car. Both boys had admitted tho charges. He applied for a remand for a few days. The magistrate granted a remand until last Friday, when the charges of stealing tho two horses were withdrawn by the police and charges of " unlawfully using" the horses substituted.

Mr. Joyce, counsel for the boys, entered a pica of guilty to all charges. Senior-Sergeant McCarthy said that the youths had been together for some time planning their debut as desperadoes. They were heading for Westport with tho idea of. getting on a boat and leaving the country. En routo they both fired at the heifer, but Brown finally killed it. They were arrested in possession of the stolen goods. Mr. Joyce said that the facts were admitted. The boys appeared to have got a mad notion into their heads; previously they had been respectable and amenable to control. Low would.lose his employment as a telegraph messenger. They both realised their position now und he asked that they be admitted to upon strict terms, and ordered to make restitution.

' Senior-Sergeant McCarthy said both boys were living at Runanga and the police would be ablo to keep, a keen eye upon them. Ho did not desire to sec them sent to gaol or an industrial school. However, tho boys themselves, and not their parents, should be made to pay the damage done, which totalled, with expenses, £l7 2s 6d. Mr. Joyco said that Brown had been going to the pictures pretty often and perhaps they had got on his nerves. Low had also been attending the pictures. Tho magistrate, in referring to the question of moving pictures, said that extraordinary things were sometimes shown, firearms being freely used. The boys were admitted to probation for two years on the following conditions: Each to pay half of the expenses incurred within six months; to report once a fortnight to the police; and not to attend a picture theatre for at least 12 months. . ' ' . At tho first hearing an application for tho suppression of the boys' names was refused by tho magistrate..