THEFT OF BEER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 70, Issue 91, 18 July 1944, Page 5

THEFT OF BEER

MAORI'S BRAZEN BEHAVIOUR

TAKEN FROM HOTEL

By the simple expedient of reaching across the counter and helping himself, Tiu Te Kura a middle-aged Maori, who appear-, ed in the Whakatane Court yesterday, had taken no less than eighlt quart bottles from the Whakatane Hotel last Thursday. The liqnor was valued at 16/8 The accused who pleaded guilty, was one of those who had a fairly heavy previous list of convictions. Sergeant Farrell said that the bottles were already wrapped up and Te Kura therefore had no difficulty in passing them off as a purchase. When accosted by the police, he had pitched another story, to the effect that it was an understood thing with the proprietor, who allowed himself to help himself,, providing he came back and settled up. He had subsequently admitted that this was not true;. Accused was sentenced to one month's imprisonment. "What's going to happen to my kids?" queried the prisoner, when sentence, had been pronounced. "Who's going to find the money to keep them." The police intimated that the Taneatua police were taking that matter in hand in the same way as they had previously done. "He should have thought of his family before he committed the theft," observed the bench.