RIOTERS SENTENCED

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3183, 28 May 1932, Page 4

RIOTERS SENTENCED

’ EIGHT MEN FOUND GUILTY. TWO OTHERS ACQUITTED. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. There was a tense atmosphere in the Supreme Court last evening when the trial of the rioting charges ended, after five days’ hearing, and the fate of the 14 accused men became known. The jury, which had retired at 1.40 p.m., returned at 6.10 p.m. to report that they had found eight of the accused guilty of taking part in the riot on the night of April 14, two not guilty, and that about the remaining four they could not arrive at an agreement. Mr Justice Herdman pronounced sentence as follows on the eight men found guilty:— George Joseph Silver, England, labourer, 32, two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. George ourer, 38, two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. Simeon Elari, Australia, labourer, 21, two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. James William Rae Simpson, Scotland, labourer, 32, two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. Mate Dragovich, Dalmatia, labourer, 33, two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. John Hubert Edwards, England, salesman, 38, one year’s imprisonment with hard labour. Clifford John Dudson, New Zealand, labourer, 31, one year’s imprisonment with haird labour. Harold Robertson, New Zealand, labourer, 19, two months’ imprisonment with hard labour, to be concurrent with a sentence he is now serving.

The jury could not agree in respect of the following accused: Oswarld Bourbeau, Canada, waterside worker, 51; John William McCorkindale, New Zealand, miner, 37; William John Budd, England, seaman, 35; Albert William Searles, England, seaman, 26.

The following were found not guilty and were discharged: John Sharpe, Scotland, miner, 36; Leo Martinovich, New Zealand, motor driver, 18. The Crown was granted leave for a new trial of the four men about whom the jury disagreed. The retrial will take place at the next criminal sittings in August. It was stated that they are all in custody. The only comment attached to the findings Nvas a Recommendation \to mercy in the case of Robertson, on account of his youth.