NELSON NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 140, 11 December 1930, Page 6

NELSON NEWS

THE TAKAKA BURGLARS

THREE YEARS' SENTENCES

(From Our Own Correspondent.) NELSON, 10th De«embor. Mr. A. Bell, Assistant Director of Education, and Mr. W. La Trobe, superintendent of Technical Education, arrived in Nelson this morning for the purpose of conferring with representatives of the Nelso'.i College and Nelson Technical School Boards in regard to the proposed unification of control of the two institutions. At the parade- of officers and n.c.o.'s of tho Machine Gun Company and Headquarters Wing, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Carrol Harley, officer commanding the Ist BattalioD, Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast Regiment, presented the "Weekly Press" shooting prize to the Nelson team which won the competition this year. Tho members of the team were as follows: Corporals W. S. Boy«s, N. Brake, and S. G. Page; Cadets K. C. Holland, C. L. Day, I. L. Mitehener, A..E. Neale, W. G. Marshall, L. B. J. Redshaw, and R. i\ Blanch. Major Sandford, Commissioner for Training for the Boy Scouts, arrived, in Nelson to-day, and is the'guest oi Dr. and Mrs.W. D. Stoney Johnston. Major Sandford will make a tour, of inspection of the various troops in the city. The winners of the Boys.' College gymnasium and physical training championships'which were decided'last ovening were as follows: Senior gymnasium, S. R. Duncan; junior, A. M'Arthur; under 14 years of age, Annand-Smith.! The senior and junior physical training competitions were won by I. R. Salmond's squads. P. Buddies squad won the dumb-bells, and S. R. Duncan's squad won the clubs' competition. The M'Larcn Cup (first year of competition) for the bust all-round cricketer was won by J. 0. Fay, and the Morison Cup, for the best all-round sport, was won by A. J. Hooper, who is head boy. Leslie Soaley and Ronald Edward Morrison, who escaped from custody last Thursday, and were recaptured in the Takaka district the following day, appeared before Mr. T. E. Maunsell, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court charged with (1) escaping from custody, (2) unlawfully converting to their own use a car valued at £300, (3) breaking and entering and theft from E. C. and E. M. Wadsworth's store of goods valued at £40 18s 7d, and. (4) breaking and entering, and the theft of £231 4s worth of goods from H. J. Thompson's jewellery shop. at Takaka. The accused pleaded guilty to all charges, and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence on the major charges. They were each sentenced to three months' imprisonment for converting the car.- When the prisoners came up for sentence before his Honour Mr.. Justice .Rood, the Crown Prosecutor (Mr. C. R. Fell) said it was only fair to state two points in their favour. Apparently the escape was entirely unpremeditated,.as Morrison left his coat only a few feet away when he escaped. Sealey pointed out' where the stolen goods were, and had this not been, done it would probably have been impossible to find them. Each wa3 sentenced to three years' imprisonment with hard labour on each charge, the- terms to be concurrent, and also concurrent with the sentences already being served.