SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 5 February 1918, Page 8

SUPREME COURT

AUCKLAND SESSIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, February 4. Tho criminal sessions opened to-day. In liis charge to the Grand Jury Mr. Justice Stringer said it was satisfactory • to note a marked decreaso in sexual offences againßt young girls, which had formed such a deplorable feature of previous calendars. He was firmly convinced tliat theso offences were due to lack of proper supervision and control by parents. It certainly was a fact that young people were allowed to wander about the streets at night without the attendance a_ responsible person. He hoped the diminution in this class of offence was an indication that parents had at last come to a proper sense of their responsibility. One offence on the list was illustrative of what he had been saying with "regard to need for strict parental control. In this case two children were concerned, one a little girl aged about five years, and the other a boy of seven. Tho evidence showed that the children had been picked up in the street by a- man Alio had taken them to an unfrequented place. He sent the boy away to get some sweets, and having got the girl by herself it was alleged that ho committed an offence againstjher. There was another charge against a man of having committed an offence of a similar nature in a picture theatre. Thomas Rowo was sentenced to imprisonment for three years with hard labour for the forgery of a withdrawal order on the Auckland Savings Bank, and uttering the same to an assistant in a shop. Accused was warned that for his next offence he_ would be declared an habitual criminal. A coloured man, 'William Scarbor, on a. charge' of break : ng and entering with intent to commit a crime, pleaded guilty, and was eontenced to three years' imprisonment with bard labour, and was declared an habitual criminal for the third time.