GUILTY OF ARSON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23954, 1 November 1939, Page 7

GUILTY OF ARSON

ACCUSED ADMITTED TO PROBATION BURNT A SEASIDE BACH (Per United Press Association) HASTINGS, Oct. 31. Found guilty of committing arson, Albert Benjamin Kemp, aged 45. of Haumoana. was admitted to two years’ probation by Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Napier to-day. In returning its verdict after a short retirement, the jury made a strong recommendation to leniency. On a second charge of committing mischief Kemp was found not guilty. The indictments arose from the burning down of a seaside bach at Kairakau Beach, near Waipawa, on or about September 4. Mr H. B. Lusk, for the Crown, said that the land on which the cottage was erected had been leased for 10 years from a Maori in 1929 by the father of the accused. Two years ago the rights of the property had been transferred by the father to the accused. Several months ago the accused approached the Native owner with a view to securing an extension of the lease. The Maori had asked for an increased rental, which Kemp was not prepared to pay. They' were unable to reach an agreement, and when the lease expired the land and ; building affixed to it became the property of the owner. According to the accused's own story, he had wilfully set fire to the buildings because he did not like the Maori getting them for nothing. The accused claimed that he thought the lease gave him a legal excuse to bum the place, said Mr E, T. Gifford for the defence. In this case the mete fact that the building was nailed to piles was the only thing that made the accused liable to the charge at all.