YOUTHFUL DELINQUENTS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 January 1933, Page 5

YOUTHFUL DELINQUENTS

INCREASE OF OFFENCES. “It is unfortunate that in recent months in this district there has been a marked increase of this type of crime,” observed Mr J. Miller, S.M., when dealing with youthful delinquents in the Children’s Court this morning, who were charged with breaking and entering dwelling houses in Carterton and stealing money and goods. There was also a joint charge against the two lads of entering the office of Messrs Lyttle and Co., Ltd., at Masterton, and stealing the sum of £1 18s. Mr Miller said he did not know whether the unemployment amongst youths had anything to do with the matter. One lad, whose father said was a good worker and honest, was ordered to be sent to the Weraroa Training Farm, while the other youth concerned, whom Mr Miller characterised as the ringleader, was ordered to be sent to the Borstal for a period of three years. Sergeant Dyer, in giving the details leading to the charges, said that on 7th January last the two offenders, along with another, who would appear in the Magistrate’s Court later in the morning in connection with the same charges, after attending a dance in Masterton,. went to Greytown on a motor cycle. All three slept in a shed behind a Greytown hotel. Next day they arrived in Carterton about midday and broke into three residences in Carterton. One lad, when interviewed, had been most untruthful, and had said that he had not been to Carterton on the day the thefts were committed. However, on being questioned later, he admitted the offences.

A boy of nine years of age, at present under the supervision of the Child Welfare Officer, admitted stealing a wristlet, watch. His term of supervision was extended to three years. It was stated that the boy went to a dairy for milk, and, seeing a watch on a bench, picked it up, and later put it in his pocket on the entrance of a woman. “You are apparently most impudent in your language,” said Mr Miller to a girl who pleaded guilty to stealing a lady’s brassiere from a bathing shed. 1 *l* will give you one more chance, but you must, keep off the streets at night,” observed Mr Miller, in ordering that the girl be placed under the supervision of the Child Welfare Officer for a period of two years.