SOUVENIR PISTOLS
REGISTRATION REQUIRED EX-SERVICEMAN IN COURT (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Dec. 13. The hospitality offered to an escaped mental patient from Porirua by a Tikorangi returned soldier, Wilfred Percy Cole, led to his appearance in the Magistrate’s Court at Waitara this morning on a charge of being in possession of an unregistered pistol, a war souvenir. The police said that Cole had brought the pistol back from Italy. On October 28 he found a cripple in a roadside shed and permitted him to stay at his home. Later the guest was found by the police in Inglewood. He was armed with the pistol and a butcher’s knife. Cole admitted having the pistol, which the mental patient had stolen. The charge had been brought against Cole as a warning to any returned men who had firearms as souvenirs, the police prosecutor added. No penalty was asked for. If souvenir pistols were not registered they must be handed in. The magistrate convicted and discharged Cole and ordered the confiscation of the pistol.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 26026, 14 December 1945, Page 4
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170SOUVENIR PISTOLS Otago Daily Times, Issue 26026, 14 December 1945, Page 4
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