GOOD RESULTS FROM POVERTY PLEA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2923, 15 August 1925, Page 4

GOOD RESULTS FROM POVERTY PLEA.

MINISTERS IMPOSED UPON.

Eltham, August 12,

Ministers in Taranaki of ail denominations have been called on recently by a man who pleaded poverty, and said he was one of their lloek, and thus obtained board and lodgings. His operations in Eltham were successful, as three ministers took pity on the “shorn sheep in winter,” but one accused the man of telling untruths, and lie made a hurried exit from the town. He called on the Mayor of Stratford and told the. same story, with the same good results.

Yesterday Constable Townsend, of Eltham, arrested him in Stratford and he was charged at the Ellham Court to-day with being idle and disorderly. It was stated that as the Ministers would not appear in the Court, a charge of being a rogue and a vagabond could not be made. The man’s name is James •Joseph Donnelly, and a list starting in 19(H) for assault and robberv and covering false pretences, drunkenness, vagrancy, breaches of prohibition order, and rogery were handed in. Accused said that all the charges were due to drink. The police said'that such acts marred the chances of a man who was really impecunious and who called on ministers for assistance. Donnelly was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.