THEFT OF TORCH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 12, 29 September 1944, Page 5

THEFT OF TORCH

YOUNG MAORI APPREHENDED

HEAVY SENTENCE IMPOSED

Pleading not guilty to the of a torch at Te Teko o;p the night of July .26 last, a young Maori, Tahae was sentenced to two monlths' imprisonment in the Whakatane court last Wednesday morning before Messrs G. Brabant and T. J. Cummings ) J.P's. John Kendall a commercial traveller of Papatoetoe;, gave evidence of having left, the torch (valued at £2) on the seat of his car when he parked it outside a shop sit Te Teko. On his return three-quarters of an hour later it was missing, and as it was a valuable torch he had taken steps to notify the police. He identified the torch-head produced as his own, by several markings, on it. According to Constable Wigmore_, the accused had been seen by other Maoris with a torch answering to the description of. the missing article. When interviewed, he declared lie. had found the torch on the road, Avith the handle flattened as though a vehicle had run over it. He had thrown the® body of the torch away but retained the head which he had screwed on to another torch belonging to his father-in-law. To the Bench accused denied hav- •» ing been in Te Teko on the night in question, and added 'that he had also seen a boy with a long torch answering to the .description of the missing one, in the Te Teko billiard saloon. The accused who was an old offender was sentenced as above t the Bench remarking that the offence was a serious one and that it considered accused guilty.