COURT NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1931, Page 5

COURT NEWS.

DESERTERS CONFESS. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association) AUCKLAID, August '2B. A confession that they deliberately deserted, was made in the Police Court to-day, by three young sailors, who slipped ashore; from the Chilean naval training ship, “General Boquetdano,” on. Tuesday evening. Hardly was the corvette out of the harbour when the sailors were seen ,in the Waitakere Ranges, and they were arrested . yesterday afternoon By the Henderson police, on a vagrancy charge. , The Magistrate (Mr Hunt,) remanded them for a week, pending a reply from the Consul-General at Sydney to a cablegram from the Auckland Consul, asking for instructions. The men had only one shilling between them. The Consul said that there .were 300 men uhoiml. M and it would be, cheaper to send the deserters to Panama by steamer than to bring the corvette back to Auckland. AN OTAGO SCANDAL. DDNEDIN, August 27. At the Balclutlia Court, Basil G. Knox, a labourer, aged twenty years, was charged with abducting a girl aged sixteen. "

The police stated that accused, .after a ball at which he gave the girl drinks of lemon sauash .adulterated with wine, otbained a car and took the girl to th e Henley Hotel, where he obtained a room, registering as a married couple. Accused was sentenced to eighteen months in the Borstal Institution, the Magistrate instructing the police eo draw the Licensing Committee’s attention to 1 the hotel licensee’s action.