STEAL OR STARVE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 857, 25 June 1910, Page 3

STEAL OR STARVE.

A POVERTY-STRICKEN FATHER’S CRIME. A distressing case came before His Honour Mr Justice Cooper at the Supreme Court Palmerston N. on Thursday morning, when W. Lawrence, who pleaded guilty to stealing two hundred sheep at the Magistrate’s Court at Feilding, appeared for sentence. Mr J. P. Innes, who appeared for accused, applied for probation. Counsel pointed out the previous good character of accused. The crime was a serious one, but the circumstances under which it was committed were very exceptional, and he contended that they would justify the granting of probation. The facts surrounding the case were as follows : Accused was a married man with a family of five, and a crippled wife dependent upon him. On the day the offence was committed Lawrence was on the river bed of the Oroua river, and found the sheep wandering there, apparently under the control of nobody. The accused was then out of work and desperately hard up. The temptation to provide food for his family by theft presented itself, and he succumbed to it. He removed the sheep some miles from where he found them and disposed of them at a sale for Shortly after he appreciated the crime he had committed and gave himself up to the police at Feilding, and acknowledged his guilt. Since, the restitution of the money had been made to the buyer of the sheep, and they had been returned to their owner. His Honour said he had his doubts as to whether he could apply the First Offenders’ Probation Act to a case of wholesale sheep stealing. He realised that the circumstances were unusual and somewhat special. His own inclination was that if he could, he would grant the probation. He remanded accused to appear before him In Wellington in fourteen days’ time. In the meantime His Honour would confer with the other Judges as to whether probation could be granted under the , Act.