PRISON FOR BURGLARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22464, 7 July 1936, Page 12

PRISON FOR BURGLARY

CHANCES NOT APPRECIATED JUDGE'S ADVICE TO ACCUSED "Though you are a very young man, 1 hope you will not be foolish enough to imagine that you can live upon society —it cannot bo done," said Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court yesterday, addressing James Davidson Ireland, aged 21, who came before him on 16 charges of breaking and entering and theft from houses.

"The police of this country are not so incompetent as that," continued His Honor. "1 am going to send you to gaol for a period of only 18 months, which 1 think is lenient in all the circumstances; and when you come out 1 do hope you will have the sense to realise that you cannot go on like this." The record of Ireland's previous convictions was put in by tho probation officer, Mr. J. Anderson. His Honor said it showed that Ireland had been very fortunate, and that on many occasions he had received mercy and further chances from various Courts, including that one. So far from making any attempt to profit by the chances given him, after being before the Court in April, during the months of May and Juno he perpetrated eight burglaries and small thefts. It was quite impossible to give him further chances. His Honor then imposed sentences amounting to 12 months' imprisonment on tho charges of breaking and entering and theft, and of six months for tho offences for which accused was placed* on probation last April, these two periods to bo cumulative.