CLAIM FOR £l050

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19671, 13 December 1933, Page 4

CLAIM FOR £loso

ALLEGED WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON. December 12. Evidence in the case of Annie Lillian Matheson, of Auckland, who petitioned Parliament for £IOSO for alleged wrongful imprisonment was heard before the Select Committee of the House of Representatives to-day. Petitioner was detained in the Borstal Institution at Wellington, and Mr Justice Smith held that the Magistrate had no jurisdiction in sentencing her to such detention. In addition to compensation, petitioner asked that her name be expunged from the criminal records of New 7 Zealand. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr M. J. Savage, was in charge of the petition. Mr S. Lye was chairman of the committee, and Mr Hall Skelton, of Auckland appeared for the petitioner. Mother’s Evidence. Mrs Matheson gave evidence that Major Gordon, probation officer, did not tell her what petitioner was being charged with. Witness wanted her daughter sent to the Roman Catholic Home in Christchurch, but Major Gordon would not permit it. Major Gordon said that she would get the girl sent to the Borstal Institution. Witness was flabbergasted when Major Gordon suggested that the girl should be sent there, and that she had been living with questionable company. She had never desired her daughter to be charged with being idle and disorderly or that she should be taken before the Court. She only wanted to give her daughter a fright. Replying to Mr Semple. Mrs Matheson said that neither she nor her husband laid an information against their daughter. She thought that her daughter would be kept at the police station for the night. Her daughter had been living with respectable people, from whose home she was taken. Inspector Cummings (Wellington) produced a statement in which Mrs Matheson said that she desired her daughter to be held in custody. To Inspector Cummings, Mrs Matheson said that she received no notice about the proceedings. Inspector Cummings produced the constable’s statement in which it stated that the girl's father had been notified.

Petitioner alleged that detectives had tried to get her to make statements which she did not desire to make. The case will be continued tomorrow.