SYMPATHY FOR YOUTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26541, 16 August 1947, Page 8

SYMPATHY FOR YOUTH

SAVED FROM PRISON TERM BUSINESS MAN’S GENEROSITY N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 6 . p.m. LONDON, Aug. 15. Harry Stevelman, an 18-year-old costermonger who was recently the subject of parliamentary questions when he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment after he had failed to pay an £BO fine for selling oranges at 4d per lb above the controlled price, walked out of Wormwood Scrubs prison a free man only a few hours after he had entered it. His fine was paid by Mr Norman Hurst, an Oxford street jeweller, who had never seen Stevelman. Mr Hurst, who said he had spent 24 hours in prison himself for failing to pay a fine during the depression, said he “couldn’t bear to see kids in trouble,” and had offered to back Stevelman in setting up his own business if he would keep straight. “ I did not know they had cavaliers any more these days,” was the comment of the warder who released Stevelman.