A BOY AND A BICYCLE.

NZ Truth, Issue 252, 23 April 1910, Page 7

A BOY AND A BICYCLE.

On April 7 a 'lad, . Wcteen years of age, breasted Into the shop of Mi W. J. McCailcch, ixi Stuart-street, Dunedin, and hired a bicycle for a day. lie gave tbe name of George Smith — which name did not belong to him. The bite wasn't returned by the 9th so the owner informed the police, and on the lath it was found that a boy answering to the description of the boy before the court had asked a secondhand dealer to buy a bicycle. The soc-omi-band dealer knew a thing or one, ami referred the boy to. bis next-door • neighbor. The next-door neighbor also Knew a thing -or seven, and only gave the lad a half-sovereign of the £2 he sold the .bicycle, to him for. Just as the boy left with his half thick ' 'un the constable hove m sight and nabbed him, whereupon tne nalf-caser was delivered over to the bobby. ; Tbe; Sub-Inspector explained that the lad's father was a miser somewhere m | tbe wilds of Utagp, and his mother was an invalid. Sonre. time ago the boy had received a horse' and had kept it for some time, and he bad also received money: from .tradesmen saying that it was for Ms mother, but these people desired to say. nothing about it. . ■ ;The Rev. Alexseh',"' who keeps a home for this kind of boy, said that some time ago . the, mother of the boy had sent him to tber home for six months, and he gpt on so well that when his father saw him he had him. sent home. He (Mr Axelsen) thought there was no way to control, the • boy but to have him m the home, and,' m accordance with- the mother's wish; he would keep him there until he was 21 years of age. Magistrate Bartholomew turned the boy over to Mr Axelsen to look after.