Te Teko's Bright Week-End

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 97, 20 September 1948, Page 5

Te Teko's Bright Week-End

TWO MAORIS FACE VARIETY OF CHARGES IN POLICE COURT AT WHAKATANE ON FRIDAY

•* Detective T. Sneddon, of Gisborne, - who prosecuted, stressed the serious- . -ness of the first charge against the -two men, which concerned their unlawful possession of explosives. He .said the carrying of explosives in •-converted cars was becoming far' .-too common. Kora was arrested on Monday . morning by Constable G. Thomasen of Taneatua in possession of a suit- • case which contained a quantity of stolen goods (the subject of other -charges) and a stick of gelignite big enough to blow several safes, a box «of detonators and a length of fuse. Hika, arrested at Opotiki, where ; "he had gone with a bicycle stolen from Te Teko, admitted being asso- - dated with Kora when they brought the converted car from Auckland, , and also admitted having had charge -of the explosives, which he told the police he had left in a bag when he cleared out after the pair had at- - tempted to convert another car at "Te Teko. v Both pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to two months’ gaol at Mt. Eden. -Car Conversion Once more in the dock together, they' pleaded guilty to the unlawful conversion of Mr Keith Lyons’s car at Te Teko on the Saturday might. Police evidence was that, having crashed the Auckland car, the two had hidden in a plantation •during the daylight hours of the Saturday, and gone at night to the "back of Lyons’s house and pushed his car out onto the road with the idea of making a getaway. Seen and chased, they bolted. That was when Kora’s coat was pulled off as Mr K. Costello caught him. They got 6 months’ each on that charge, cumulative, at Mt. Eden. « 0n His Own - After that, Kora was on his own. He pleaded guilty to stealing an overcoat from William Foote at Te Teko, and had two months added to his sojourn. at Mt. Eden. Then he was charged with breakV'- ing and entering Mrs D. Berryman’s house at Onepu and stealing property worth £l3 7s 6d, belonging to Mrs Berryman and her housekeeper, Miss*N. Arnott. He was also charg-

Ben Richard Kora and Andy Hika, the two who arrived at Te Teko in a converted car from Auckland and played leading parts in the dramatic events of the week-end of September 11 and 12, faced Messrs C. S. Armstrong and 1.. B. Hubbard, J’s P., in the Police Court at Whakatane on Friday to answfer a variety of charges. Those against Kora in particular made a formidable list.

ed with * theft of clothing, personal effects and money to a total value of £54 6s from the dwelling of Clifford Weller, Public Works engineer, at Te Teko. To those charges he pleaded, not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court at Auckland for trial on October 19. Place Ransacked Mr Weller’s evidence was that he had been away for the night, and on his return early next morning, found that the place had been ransacked. His belongings were strewn around the floor, and a suitcase, together with sundry articles of clothing, his watch, his camera, and £9 worth of banknotes were missing. Constable’s Evidence ■ Constable Thomasen said that while searching a pine plantation at the junction of the main Rotorua highway with the Onepu road on the Sunday with settlers and other police officers, he found Weller’s camera, his rug and his watch, as well as Miss Arnott’s handbag with her money, and a tin containing cakes and biscuits.

About 5 a.m. Monday, when he was driving along the Rotorua highway about a mile and a half from Te Teko, he encountered Kora carrying a large suitcase and wearing two overcoats, one of which turned out to be Weller’s. ' Gave False Name Kora said his name was Carroll, and that the case belonged to his mate “Heta Thomas,” but the cpntents wpre his own. Apart from Waller’s clothes,* the case contained Miss Afnott’s fountain pen. Detective Sneddon found the gelignite in the case wrapped up in a shirt. Miss Arnott gave evidence that the house had been entered while she was at Church on Sunday morning,'and the drawers in the bedroom dressing Apart from the handbag, money and fountain •pen taken from the bedrooms, a tin of cakes and a jar of peaches had dis appeared. The intruder left a cigarette butt on the bedroom floor.. She had shut both doors when she went out, and was away .about two hours. The house was in view of the plantation mentioned in other witnesses’ evidence. - .