TRESPASS AT SCHOOLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22741, 29 May 1937, Page 16

TRESPASS AT SCHOOLS

WARNING BY MAGISTRATE TWO PERSONS FINED "Trespassing on school property is becoming very serious," said SubInspector Fox in the Folice Court yesterday, when Owen William Henry Wilson and Florence Jamiesort were charged with being found unlawfully on the premises of the Owairaka School. Mr. Fox said that as a result of complaints a constable Went to the school grounds at ten o'clock on the night of May 4 and found the two defendants sitting together in a shelter shed. They explained that they had been on the road when it began to rain and had gone there for shelter. Two of three days previously the school hM been broken into and the indications were that it had been done by a courting couple. "I do not suggest anything against jtho character of the defendants, but we have received several complaints from school committees round Auckland in regard to this kind of offence—unlawful trespass," said Mr. Fox. "It is very necessary that the public should know, and these young people coming home from dances, that they have 110 right on school grounds," said the Magistrate, Mr. C. It. Orr Walker. "If they hre found even under these innocent circumstances they may be misjudged as others are using school grounds for improper .conduct." "If I find a case coming before me in which improper conduct is proved, I will consider seriously the question of not fining the offenders but entering a short term of imprisonment," added the magistrate. "I understand it is more or less a scandal- the way young people go into these school grounds for immoral purposes. It is fortunate for you and your young lady friend that there Was no suggestion of that sort," ho said to Wilson. Defendants were each fined 20s and coste.