DUNEDIN DOINGS

NZ Truth, Issue 749, 25 October 1919, Page 6

DUNEDIN DOINGS

(From "Truth's" Dungdin Rep.) " A THIEVING TRIO. Returned Soldiers With Records. Robert Edgeworth, Alfred Brewer, alias Anderson, and John Clarence Cooper— the latter a young, Australian t-t v £ n. rema nd, came* up before Mr." W=' « Widdowson, S.M., at the Dunedm Police Court on October 15 -on various charges of petty thieving. fJ^ r^Sp^ tor Mathieson prosecuted, and the thieving trio were undefended. Brewer and Cooper were railed m fust and were charged with stealing six dozen bottles valued at ISs. Both leaded guilty, but Brewer said the wnt fi o UleS he stolG were only woith 2s a dozen, and when he sold that kind as a "bottle-oh" man he never got more than a "bob" a dozen— 'profiteering m "pints," perhaps. The police obligingly altered the amount to suit the conscience of the man with the appropriate name of Brewer. - !.' Brewer, alias '^Anderson,' was then removed, and Rolfert Edgeworth stood charged with Cooper of paving nabbed some wearing apparel of a man named Frederick McNab. Cooper pleaded guilty, but Edgeworth denied copping Mac's "clobber." The evidence m this case was that on September 30 McNab gave the clothes to a carter to deliver to his washerwoman, but the carter failed to deliver that day, and-for safety put them under the seat m his cart when he stabled that 1 night' In the morning the bundle was gone. Both Brewer and Cooper gave- evidence—unwilling evidence— against their alleged collaring "cobber." Cooper said he and Edgeworth stayed at Brewer's house, but had a "bust" up, and they left the house, and slept m a stable for a few hours. The witness said it was then ho lifted McNab's washing, and took it back to Brewer's when they cooled down. Constable McSulloch said he arrested Edgeworth and Cooper, and charged them with stealing wearing apparel to the value of £3 10s. Edgeworth denied it. The S.M. thought the case was suspicious, but he gave Robert the benefit of the doubt, and the charge was dismissed. . The same pair were then docked for for another offence, the stealing of three bottles of whisky, valued at 31s 6d, the property of • some person unknown. A charge of receiving three bottles of whisky, knowing them to be stolen was also put up against Edgeworth. Cooper pleaded guilty, but Edgeworth said he got two bottles of whisky from Cooper, but he did not know that it was whisky "whisked" from somebody unknown. . Cooper was again the chief witness against his "cobber." He declared after the "bust up" with Brewer the two went to Mosgiel looking for work. Not finding It he appropriated three bottles of "Red Seal" from a bottle store, but he could not say which Mosgiel merchant has struck the loss. He took the three bottles and .put them m his kit, and came back to Dunedin with Edgeworth, not further troubling Mosgiel for workStuart Clarke, barman at the Waterloo Hotel, said the whisky was brought to him for sale, but he would not take it on because he came of the Stuart line he had his "doots" about tho "whusky." The S.M. considered Edgeworth's story was too thin, ■ and he was convicted of receiving. Then came the records. The Sub. said that Edgeworth had been convicted m Wellington of, theft In 1901. Three charges of false pretences were m 1903 fixed up against him at Waimate, illegally on 'premises at Timaru formed another, and charges of drunkenness m Christchurch m 1912 completed his little list. Since he came to Dunedin, added the 5.1., he had associated with Brewer and Cooper. The Sub. said Brewer came to God's Own as a stowaway,' and had done time In Auckland for false pretences, whilst Cooper had done six months' reformative treatment for theft at Blenheim. Edgeworth told the S.M. he had been honestly working from 1912 to 1914, and then did three years' war service. He had a wife living m Christchurch. Brewer declared he had also gone away with the Main Bpdy, and had been discharged In 1916. He was a widower, and his son had also shoul/dered a rifle m foreign lands. The S.M. thought the three cases over, and asked Probation Officer Cummings to make inquiries about "Cooper, and he would remand him for a v^eek. Then, after a long consideration, he said inasmuch as the other two had' honorably served their country he would remand them also for a week. And the middle-aged pair, who wore doleful countenances when their records were being read out', brightened up at the thought, that a week's thinking over by the S.M. might be all m their favor. !