FORGERY CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 96, 17 January 1935, Page 10

FORGERY CHARGE

Maori Woman Pleads Guilty Dominion Special Service. , Wanganui, January 16. Pleading guilty to a charge of forgery in the Wanganui Magistrate’s • Court to-day, a Maori woman, Lizzie Tangaroa, was committed for sentence at the next sitting of the Supreme Court in Wanganui. Bail was allowed on two sureties of £.lOO. She was charged with committing forgery by altering a cheque from £2/12/7 to £5/12/7. M. Falconer, accountant, and manager of the Aramoho Dairy Co., said a Maori, T. Tawhaka, was a supplier to the factory. Witness on October 17 last issued a cheque to Tawhaka for £2/12/7. Later, checking his passbook, he noticed that this cheque’ had been paid as £5/12/7. He had examined the cheque and found that the word two had been altered to a five, and that the figure two had been changed to five. Accused had no authority to alter the cheque, lie said. Mata Kumaroa said that she assisted at a store at Otoko. On October 17 accused came into the store and made purchases to the value of 12/-. In payment a cheque for £5/12/7 was handed in and tlie correct change was given. Witness did not know that the cheque had been altered. . Evidence was given by Detective JMurray, who said that he interviewed accused on January 11, and she admitted that she had been given a cheque by her husband. She said she altered a word on the cheque to read five and also the figure to read five. rived from those of his own language. The result was not very successful, but his letter had been delivered. Lower Hat, appearing on one of these envelopes, might be supposed by the layman to be an effort at Lower Hutt. Such is not the case, however, and the letter had been delivered to Tawa Flat. One letter was curiously addressed to the town of T. Archer: it went to Te Arolia. Another was addressed to East Oxford, near Church, England. It went to the United Kingdom, and was eventually found to be meant for “Near the Church of England, East Oxford.” One optimist sent a letter to Beach Road, New Zealand, but the address was soon ■ traced to Waihi. St. Omer House, Ferndale, was also found by the astute officials to be Ferndale House, St. Omer. High Street, Motue Road, may sound a trifle puzzling. It is actually High Street, Motneka. How officials managed to translate Terrain into Timaru, Pt thwate into Pt. Chevalier, Yvonitz into Granity, Silverden into Culverden, and Sinpearae into Auckland will always be something of a mystery. Here are a few variations on Maori names: Te Teniorina for Te Awamutu, Mackanoe for Waikanae, Kakouangi for Reikorangi, Fahamm for Takanini, Tronga for Tauranga and Kaipoila for Kaipara. Oainaru has two variations, very dissimilar. One is Camsoil. the other Damaver. Valuable Envelopes. Included among the undelivered letters are some of considerable value. These were posted to travel by various air mails, principally those carried across the Tasman, and there are several that travelled on the first New Zea-land-Australia air mail, carried on the Southern Cross. Some have blank envelopes/others are inadequately addressed. but there are a large number of them, none of which has been destroyed. One person, obviously a collector. bad sent five letters to himself in Surrey. England. He could not be traced witliokit the name of a town. Several of those who sent air mail letters are found to have written nothing inside them, merely desiring the franked envelope. A number wrote brief notes on telegraph forms, and others used blank telegraph forms to fill up their envelopes.

■ “if Ulra gets across you’ll get this,” wrote another. Ulin did get across, but someone was disappointed. The Dead Letter Office also takes charge of various articles left in post offices throughout New Zealand. Fountain nens and gloves are among the things most frequently left behind; others include scissors, shopping bags, toilet sets, spectacles, collars, packets of seeds, umbrellas and parcels of groceries. Quite a large proportion of these articles are. however, eventually reclaimed. ' And so tlie Dead Letter Office carries on" with its extraordinary duties. It has ti thankless job Although letters and parcels have been sent back from one end of New Zealand to the other to their destinations or senders, tlie thanks that have neon received from the recipients could be numbered on the fingers of both hands. The office is not the only department concerned with the carele.ss address of correspondence. A man is kept all day in the Postal Department solely correcting mistakes in addresses. Tlie missing out of a street number on the assumption tlrnt ‘“he postman wiil know” will often result in a long delay I in the delivery of a letter.