YEAR’S PROBATION GIVEN

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 5

YEAR’S PROBATION GIVEN

: COAL THEFT FROM WHARF. DETERMINED POLICE STAND. > The second prosecution within a short • period for the theft of coal at the • waterfront was heard at the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth yester-. . day. Edward Opai, aged 23, a. married ; Maori relief worker, was convicted on ■ a charge of stealing 3s worth of coal, I the property of the New Zealand Railway Department, on April 14. Opai was placed on probation for twelve months. In a statement to Constable J. M. Fleming Opai admitted that on occasions he had boarded a coal train and thrown off coal which he .returned for later and collected. The facts as given by Senior-Sergeant : E. T. C. Turner in prosecuting were 1 that Constable Fleming had found two lumps of coal weighing about 76 pounds in a lavatory cubicle on the Newton I King wharf. He kept it under observa-

tion, but as nothing happened the coal I was replaced in a railway truck. Constable Fleming interviewed Opai on April 19. In a statement Opai said he had been driving a winch on s.s. Karetu on April 14 and had seen a quantity of coal lying on the wharf. He placed sufficient to fill a sugar sack in a lavatory cubicle. He went to get the coal when he had finished work but it had gone. He had no permission to take the coal but had thought there was no harm in it. . .. The police were determined to stamp out the. practice of taking coal, added Senior-Sergeant Turner. ... Opai pleaded guilty and had nothing to add to 'his statement. Constable Fleming said that Opai and his young wife were not in good circumstances. They lived in a tent. Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., impressed upon Opai that taking coal was theft. If it occurred again Opai would go to prison.' He would be given a chance on this occasion.