LIVED IN PADDOCK

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1933, Page 5

LIVED IN PADDOCK

VAGRANT SENT TO GAOL. “MENACE TO COMMUNITY.’* Auckland, Feb. 4. . “This man’s present mode of living is no good for himself or the community, to which he is a decided menace.” was the comment of the Bench in. the Otahuhu Police Court yesterday, when sen* fencing John Dome, aged 55, to imprisonment on charges of being an idle and disorderly person; theft of a cycle; and being in possession of. explosives while' not the holder of a permit. Accused ad# mitted the offences. Messrs. C. R. Petrie and R.B. Todd, J’s-P4 presided. 5 Sergeant J. Cahill said that Dome had been a bird of passage and everywhere he had been he had committed offences, He was arrested at Westfield, where hfe had been living in a paddock. In bad weather he had slept in a small cave and during the dry spell had slept in the bush. His bed had consisted of two bld sacks spread over pine Dome had been haunting the Otahuhn district for some time. The sergeant said the cycle had bee# taken from outside a hotel in Otahuhtt and was found in, accused’s possession. Dome’s explanation was that he had been footsore and had taken the cycle tt ride to his camp, with the intention o£ returning it later. In accused’s posses* sion when arrested were 27 small plugs and four large plugs of gelignite, foug coils of fuse and 24 detonators. Dome’s story was that he had been living with another man, who had left the explosives with Dome when he departed. Accused had buried the explosives in th® ground. “I cannot say anything in accused’® favour, as he has a long list of previous convictions,” said Sergeant Cahill. Accused said he had one thing in hil favour. The police had not known he possessed the explosives until he had volunteered the . information; He had given the information after arrest, as he thought fire might -sweep the ground, where the explosives were buried and a serious explosion might have resulted. “It would be better for accused to be under control,”, remarked the Bench in sentencing Dome to three months’ imprisonment on each charge, the terms to be cumulative.