HERE AND THERE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16371, 20 June 1927, Page 8

HERE AND THERE

(P.A. Messages). Some time between 5 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday M. J. Nelson’s general store at Whatoro (North Auckland) was broken into and a. heavy safe taken outside and broken open with a sledge hammer and iron bar. The amount stolen consists Of £7 in notes. The thieves also took about £1 in cash from the till, and the ledger and cash hook. The safe was damaged beyond repair. The police have the matter in hand. No arrest lias yet been made.

Cecil Mark Brown was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment at the Auckland Supreme Court to-day for breaking, entering and theft. Mr. Justice ’Reed said accused’s .plea that lie was out of work and had stolen to provide for his wife and children would not hold water. Since serving a term of imprisonment for another offence lie had been living a self-indulgent life, spending his money on drink and amusement. .Walter Henry McConnell, who bad been convicted of forgery and false, pretences and who had also broken his probation, was sentenced 1 to three years’ gaol. This morning Mr. Justice Adams was presented with a, pair of gloves at the opening of the Hokitika Supreme Court, there being no criminal business. The Judge congratulated the district and the whole West Coast on the absence of serious crime. Only formal business was dealt with.

Two new arrivals were arrested at' Hokitika, to-day- on a charge of theft from a dwelling, and were remanded till Wednesday. Five men, L. A. Kyle, G. Place. R. O'Donnell, G- Hacker, and .J. MoCusker, for conducting a game of crown and anchor at a? church bazaar, were fined £2 each and costs at Napier this morning. 1 The magistrate impounded £5 2s 6d, which was found by the police when the raid was made.

Guilty on all charges was the finding of the Military Court at Hawera which heard the allegations against Stafi-Ser-geant-Major C. S. Mahoney, W. 0,,. Ist class. The sentence was as follows : That lie be reduced in rank to staff-sergeant-major, W. 0., 2nd class, and take rank of precedence as if his appointment bore the, (late May 23. in the course of a civic reception to the British Motor Delegation at Dunedin. apparent indifference in the past of Britain to New Zealand’s import trade was referred to. Sir A. BoydCarpehter, in a reply largely on the lines of liis northern speeches, stated that it hud not been' indifference, but want of ,opportunity. All English industries had been transformed to provide munitions, and when they commenced to ve-eomlitioii their factories there was no money available.

A very severe south-easterly gale swept Whaiigaroi during the week-end. It was ’ accompanied by the .heaviest rainfall registered during any 24 hours this year, 2.17 in. being registered at, Whangnrei and 5.1 m. at Kuatniigata.

In the Auckland Police Court, Raymond Patrick Letton, 55, admitted converting to Ins own use two motor-cars valued at. £1650 and £2s'o respectively. He was sentenced to live months’ gaol.