LAW REPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 759, 7 March 1910, Page 11

LAW REPORTS.

SUPREME COURT. DEFALCATIONS OF A UNION SECRETARY. CONTEMPLATED SUICIDE. Tho Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, presided nt a sitting of the Supremo Court on Saturday morning, at which three prisoners were brought , up for sentence. 'Mr. W. H. D.'Bcll appeared on behalf of tho Crown. William Williams, lato secretary of tho Ironmoulders' Union, having pleaded guilty to six charges of theft, handed in a written statement, to tho judge. The stolon money nmounted to £H2 Ds. 5d., the property of tho union, and .£10; benefit money handed to Williams to forward to a .cripple. . . Mr. Bell said that tho police gave prisoner a good character up to the time of tho commission of tho thefts. Ho had been in. New. Zealand for six years. , His Honour remarked that the offences had oxtended over a considerable time, • and the amounts were considerable. In view of the decisions that probation was not suitable for this class of case, in which' there were a number, of offences committed at intervals, it was difficult to know exactly what to do with the case. After perusing tho prisoner's memorandum, his Honour asked: "Havo you the letters to show, that you expected, money from your father?" ! Prisoner: I could have brought witnosses to prove'■ it, but when I knew that I would most likely be arrested, I burned tho letters. My intention nt that time was. to commit suicide, and for that reason I destroyed all my private papers. Tho.judge remarked that no would have been inclined to grant probation had it not.becn for recent rulings regarding such cases as the , present one. Prisoner had found himself short, and' , had : appropriated union money. Then ho took more, and began to gamble, hoping to redeem himself—a very foolish thing to do. The temptation-, arose through his being unaccustomed to having charge of money. He had yielded to gambling—a very common thing in the Dominion—but, as ho was n young man, his Honour hoped that his present nosition would be a lesson to him. His Honour would pass what was really a nominal sentence—four months' imprisonment.

AWAY FKOM 'CITY, INFLUENCES. On behalf of a youth, Charles. Brooks, who had pleaded guilty to two charges of breaking and entering and stealing,from a house at Hutt, Mr. A. L. Herdman mado an appeal for leniency. v '■: ■~ Until quito recently, said Mri Herdman; the lad had been working on his father's farm. He had once , previously caused his father'some trouble, but, as he was only 19 years of age, counsel suggested that ho should be admitted to probation, ono of the conditions to be .that he must not absent himself from, his father's house after 9 o'clock at night.; Thcro'had been some trouble with barmaids. His Honour admitted the ■ lad ■to probation, and ordered that ho should remain on his father's farm, , seven miles from Blenheim. If'ho were found.in a town, or gave any trouble, he would bo arrested. . Tho sum of 18s. 2d., found on. him, was ordered to be returned to the parsons from whom money had been stolen. ■. ■ ■

"A NEW START' IN '. LIFEi" '..,■. ■A young mair from Pahiatua, Robert Yanston/alias John Ward,'" alias Morris',' camq forward. '•Uβ had pleaded guilty to' stealing two cows (value .£l2), ; tho. pro'-, perty of John Ostyke, of MaKuri;.' ■ . ■ ; Mr. Bell explained that thero had been a small charge against Yanston, in. 1907, when ho stole a pair of. trousers vboloncing to his grandfather. Ho was thea'onfy 15 years, of age, however. "The young man said.that for.'therpast three years, he had been working on his own account in tho South Island, and .through tho TVairarapa. His grandfather, who had brought him up since the death of his iather, was now living at Palmerston North, ho' believed, .and he had written to him; ■ ■ .

Having regard to the youth of the prisoner and the other circumstances, his Honour stated that he would givo' the young man a new start-inlife. Ho would be ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, and it would bo desirable that he should write monthly to the probation officer , ,.in order: that.'he.' should know how he was getting- on. Prisoner consented to meet tho conditions as to reporting-periodically to. the probation officer. ' .