YOUTH GIVEN CHANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1934, Page 5

YOUTH GIVEN CHANCE

THEFT COMMITTED AT HAWERA.

MAN GOOD WORKER ON FARM. Charged with the theft on October 25 of £3 ss, the property of Frank Walker, Terence Gordon Cartwright, farm labourer, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within two years if called upon by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., in the Hawera Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Cartwright is already on two years’ probation, and the magistrate reduced the sentence after Sergeant J. Henry, who prosecuted, had secured for Cartwright a farm position in the interval between the hearing and the sentence.

In October Cartwright had been admitted to probation for two years on one charge and fined on another, said Sergeant Henry. He returned to a farm on which he was working and after staying for a week, left and returned to Hawera. On some money he had, he lived at a boardinghouse. With another youth, Cartwright then slept two nights at King Edward Park and another night in the engine shed at the Hawera railway station.

On October 26, Cartwright and his companion went out to the Egmont Bacon Factory and Cartwright went into the engine room, taking the money from Walker's pocket. Ke gave £1 to his companion, and paid some of his board.

“Cartwright is unfortunate,” said the sergeant. “His parents died when he was young and until he was 17 years of age he was in the State's care. He has been on remand for some days and has shown himself an excellent worker. He is a

boy of the type most useful on farms. It is a rather difficult case, but he can’t be allowed to go on in this way. When he left the farm, he did not notify me as probation officer of his change of address.”

Mr. Woodward: Why didn’t you tell the sergeant of your leaving the farm? Cartwright: I thought I had to leave the district before doing so. I left the job because of a row with another labourer.

In standing the case down till the afternoon, Mr. Woodward said he did not want to send Cartwright to gaol if possible. The sergeant had secured him a position in a good home in the country, said the magistrate, in delivering sentence on Cartwright. He was therefore giving accused another chance. He instructed Cartwright on the terms of his probation and said he hoped he would in future trust the sergeant.