JUVENILE DEPRAVITY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2998, 13 February 1926, Page 2

JUVENILE DEPRAVITY

ASHBURTON’S FOUR BAD BOYS,

Ashburton, February 12,

“This is an awful state of affairs that in a small community like Ashburton offences of this kind have been committed almost with impunity,” said Mr. Mosley, S.M., when hearing 28 charges of damage, theft, and breaking and entering against four lads, whose ages range from fourteen to sixteen, who appeared at the Juvenille Court today. The police stated that a day book stolen from a store contained statement's of debts totalling over a hundred pounds had not been recovered. The Magistrate reduced charges to simple theft. The probation officer said that the mother of one of the boys had come across a letter from the ringleader of the gang, in which he stated that lie was going to become a “master cracksman.”

It was stated that the ringleader who had been committed to the Borstal Institute last week, had threatened one of the offenders with violence if he divulged information to the police. One boy elected to take a thrashing instead of “going away.” The others were ordered eight strokes of the birch, placed on two years’ probation, and ordered to make restitution for the goods not recovered.