LOST PROPERTY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17230, 9 April 1930, Page 7

LOST PROPERTY

FINDER'S RESPONSIBILITY EFFORTS TO TRACE OWNER (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. "If people find valuable articles there is an easy way to trace the owner, either by informing the local constable or by advertising in the newspapers. When a person finds a valuable gold watch in the street it is easy to take reasonable steps to find the owner, and failure to take those steps is a crime." These remarks' were made by Mr. F. K. Hunt, 8.. M., in the Police Court, when a married woman whoso name was ordered to be suppressed was charged with stealing a gold watch valued at £7 in .Tunc, 1027. The accused stated that she had found the watch on the roadside. Chief Detective Hammond said the complainant had been to the Waikumete cemetery, and then drove in a motor-car To Henderson. When she left the cemetery the watch was on her wrist, but it was lost on the way. The complainant advertised tor it twice. The accused admitted finding the watch on the road. Mr. Hall Skolton, who entered a plea of not guilty, said there was no compulsion on a person to hand an article which was found to the police. "All these cases show that if a person picks up an article on the road and keeps it he is not guilty of thetv," he said, quoting precedents. "There is no onus on him to take steps to find the owner." "We are getting too many cases where people find valuables and do not return them," remarked the magistrate, after Mr, Hammond had mentioned leading cases to show that a finder should endeavor to trace the owner. The magistrate dismissed the case upon payment of costs.