POSTAL THEFTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3056, 17 April 1917, Page 8

POSTAL THEFTS

GRAVE POSSIBILITIES A YOUTH SENTENCED His Honour Mr. Justice Chapman .yesterday presided over a sitting of tho Supreme Court held for the purposo of sontencing two prisoners. Mr. P. S. K. Macassey, of the Crown Law Office, appeared-for the Crown. 'William Honry HohbSj eighteen and a half years o| age, had pleaJeH guilty to four charges of stealing postal packets. Ho said ho was' getting a small sajary in tho Post Office—£so per year, with £20 board allowance. He did. not find the amount sufficionfc t<l live on, and at last he got so worried over his lack of monev that he committed the offeneee. "tf you give me a chance," he concluded,. "I'll enlist or go on a farm." Mr. Macassey said the prisoner was convicted of theft at Christchiirch in 1910, and was sent to Burnham. After three or four years at Burnham lie wont home to his father at Petone, where he -was licensed out. Hβ then ■worked for cordial manufacturers, and finally went into the Post Office. On transference to Woodvillo ho showed considerable extravagance. He owed over £6 there for such things as lollies, soft drinks, etc. Ho was wild and hard, to control. His Honour, in sentencing the prisoner, said: There is only one course I can properly take in your ease. The Court has always dealt severely with these cases of stealing postal packets, and for very good reasons indeed. When an employee of the Postal Department steals a postal packet, the blame may fall on the -wrong man, and very serious consequences may ensue. Further than that, far worse consequences may ensue. A man niay he sending remittances to his. wife; she may fail, to receive them and be under the impression that her husband has deserted her. The worst consequences may follow. For these and other equally' good reasons Judges have declined" to give probation in a case of tin's elnss—not that, that applies to your case, because you ere not qualified to receive probation. The onjy thing T can do in sentencing you to a term of detention is to put you on the footing of being detained for reformative purposes. You will he sentenced _ to twelve months' reformative detention, It will recommend that it he served at Invercargil!.,