TAINUI'S TRICKS.

NZ Truth, Issue 73, 10 November 1906, Page 5

TAINUI'S TRICKS.

HALF-CASTE SWJNDLERESS BOOBED.

A Wholesale False Pretences Operator.

lt is quaintly peculiar how a habit hangs on to a person and won't be dispersed or dispensed with ; especially if it's an old habit, and hangs about your clothes and obsesses ' you ; but it's an absolute, undeniable fact all the same. There is seemingly no getting rid of it, and even when you exercise all your willpower it comes at you after a term of years and gets you down once again. How noticeable is this m the case of criminals. A : largg^juiitflJSr? the largest number of thi#^^^HS

the community, all go m for on^clasa! of crime. Some are thieves — mean thieves— others get into your .house by night, or by day, and earn a larger sentence by the use of professional implements, the possession of which is a crime m itself, which usually means a nice term of quod ; others can't help forging cheques, even if they have money m their pockets ; others secure money and goods by false pretences— they all seem to go m the groove for which they thjSnk they are best fitted. In the false pretence connection there is one girl m Christohurch who is an absolute masterpiece. Long practice has made her so ; yet she is not even middle ag€d. And she is a halfcaste ; none other than bur old but dubious friend

MARTHA TAINUI, whose career is so well known to the Wellington polioe (and shopkeepers), and has been narrated m the columns of "Truth" previously. Martha is a sunburnt peach with blossoms on her intellect. She has false pretences on the brain, and it has been there for many years now. In Wellington and elsewhere she has lived m royal style ; has driven m cabs, and eaten fine dinners (and incidentally nightmare suppers) and all for nix. Of course she has invariably paid the piper m the long run ; m fact she necessarily, must because Martha's color is against her, and she is easily picked out, and as the soft spoken lady with such regal airs is an easy mark for the police once she is described, she has perforce to dine later on m quite a different place, m quite different clothes, and m absolutely different company. It is only the other day that the lady came out of Lytteltoii Gaol after doing a half year stretch, yet she coveted her quarters, apparently, or she possesses an inherent tendency to swindle, and has gone right back. As she has 23 convictions against her it is pretty evident that the North Island brown lady can't possibly • leave swindling alone ; and she doesn't do things m a small way, either. She has ordered as much as £70 worth of toggery m one afternoon. On this occasion she was extremely modest, and, with the air of a princess, had only £16 worth sent along to her lodgings from one shop, and something less •than that from another. Mind you, being race week, and seeing that the brown girl was unknown, the firms concerned took her at her word that she was a relative of . the Hon. JameJs Carroll, and that the Hon. James would part. "Timi Kara" happened to be sick m the north, but they soon found out the deception. When m Wellington naughty Martha used to represent that her father was a wellknown Wairarapa squatter, and she got a tremendous amount of goods— until found out. Also, the wife (colored) of a much better k nown Hawke's Bay chieftainess '(married to a white squatter), was said by her to : be her most intimate relative and dearly beloved friend, and the scheme was always successful. Then they had to take the partially soiled goods back after the police had abducted them from Tainui's wardrobe, which was always most extensive immediately after her release from gaol. On this particular occasion the false pretence woman with a large mouth and a sweet smile blamed drink for her undoing, but the Magistrate, Bishop, S.M., took no notice, and gave her six months on each charge, the sentences to be cumulative, so Martha T. will have to a whole twelve months this trip. When the sentence had been uttered, the sweet deceiver hoped that Bishop would drop dead, or words to that effect; and she was about start a statement asking why the publicans who supplied her with liquor weren't punished, when she was abruptly cut. short, and hauled out of the. dock. Martha is a great piece of eoodY ' and she likes goods m long lengths when she gets them for nothing. .