BURNHAM'S BAD BOYS.

NZ Truth, Issue 100, 18 May 1907, Page 6

BURNHAM'S BAD BOYS.

Willis Builds a House

And Steals Everything but the Section.

Building a house with "borrowed" material isn't a new device, but it is only now and again that it is tried on. An e'nterptising ex-Industrial School lad named Leonard Willis, aged 22, distinguished himself m this respect at Christchurch, and is now pondering how much he could • have earned by honest work if he had managed, to keep out of gaol. As it was he was able to secure a section at the Port Hills (he couldn't steal it) and started to erect a tworoomed slianty on it. As timber and tools were requisite, he stole the whole outfit, most of the thttber coming from yards at Beckenham, whioh is nice and handy to the location of his mansion. Five sheets of corrugated iron also figured m the catalogue. But Willis had to look round for' a carpenter's kit, and this he stole from a Knight of the Hammer at Linwood. But the youngster wasn't as fly as he thought he was and he found himself

CONFRONTED WITH FIVE,

CHARGES . „ at Court -last week. The values were small, but this house was only going to he pony one, and he had almost stolen enough to build the dog kennel. During the next twelve months this precious State-reared thief will do carpentering work at Lyttelton. -

Another of his fraternity— a much mere youthful fellow— was up at the same sitting of the . Court. Albert Victor Pearson is an incorrigible, one of the sort who contaminates the boys at Burnham school. He has been discharged on a couple of occasions, as being fit to make his way m the world, but his dints have been attracted to property that wasn't his, and the police copped him each time. On the present occasion Pearson broke into the house of Charles Baldwin, at Islington, and stole various small items aggregating to the value of £2 10s. vHe naturally couldn't leave a little beer alone, and even pot away with some boot polish. Tjive Magistrate gave him three months, and ordered that he be kept separate from the other prisoners. But a -kid with no morals like Pearson is bound to come befoi'j the Court again.