BROTHERS CHARGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21924, 6 October 1934, Page 19

BROTHERS CHARGED

former good character COMMENT -BY MAGISTRATE The two brothers who were before the Huntly Police Court on Thursday on charges connected with an incident at Waiterimu on September 5, when it is alleged a shotgun was fired, appeared in the Auckland Police Court yesterday on further charges. Nelson Henry May, motor driver, aged 30, and Lawrence Ernest May, aged 28, motor driver, pleaded not guilty to a. joint charge of the theft at Matahura on September 23 of two wool packs and wool, of a. total value of £2, the property of John McGovern, and were remanded to appear at Huntly on Thursday. Lawrence Ernest May pleaded guilty to the theft of a motor-truck battery, the property of the Manukau County Council, at Mangere on June 9. Mr. Noble said it .was a case of the young man, who saw the garage door open, yielding to a sudden temptation to shift the truck battery into his own car. Both brothers had been perfectly respectable citizens until a little while ago, when, after a long period of unemployment, they had apparently committed some offences. "It is an alarming fea,ture of to-day that so many people of formerly good character are coming before the Court for- theft," said the magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson. "This is not an isolated case; week after week magistrates hear similar caseis. It is an alarming circumstance." Mr. Noble pointed out that accused had already been sentenced to a month's imprisonment on a charge of stealing benzine, and as.ked that, in view of the fact that the present offence had been-committed at a prior date, no additional imprisonment should bo imposed. A sentence of a fortnight's imprisonment, concurrent with the sentence at presetiit being served, was imposed.