“A SOCIAL PROBLEM”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20046, 19 September 1939, Page 3

“A SOCIAL PROBLEM”

IMPRISONMENT TERM IDLE AND DISORDERLY. SECOND APPEARANCE “This man is one of the. _ social problems which Your Worship and the police arc called upon to face,” said Senior-Sergeant J. F. H. Macnamara. when prosecuting Edward Gilpin, aged SG, an Australian labourer, before Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M.. in the Police Court this morning.

Gilpin, who pleaded guilty, was charged with being an idle and disorderly person in that he had insufficient lawful means of support. Prosecuting, the senior-sergeant said that Gilpin had been before the court on September 4 on a similar charge and had been convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon. After being dealt with by the Court on that occasion the accused had been taken to the Social Security Department, but while he was being interviewed there he had been subject to a fainting fit. Gilpin had been taken to the Cook Hospital for treatment and had been discharged a few days ago. Since his discharge Gilpin had been sleeping in the convenience attached to the R.S.A. rooms on Read’s quay and when arrested yesterday had been in an exhausted condition. When lie had previously appeared before the Court Gilpin had told the Bench that he did not intend to work. , ‘‘l am sentencing you to a term of imprisonment not as a punishment but to provide you with a temporary home,” commented His Worship in sentencing the accused to three months 1 gaol.