SIX BOYS AND A CAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3920, 19 March 1929, Page 3

SIX BOYS AND A CAR.

+ YOUTHS RUN AWjAY FROM TRAINING FARM PICNIC. MOTOR ABANDONED AT HALCOMBE. Boys who attempt to escape from .the care of the Training Farm at Wei’aroa show snore dating than discretion, for they not only undergo privations during their illicit liberty, hut sooner or later are caught and returned to the institution with all the ignominy attending arrest and reprimand (says the Levin Chronicle). 'Six of them are now dodging the police, presumably in the Oroua district, whibhier they went in an illegally Converted car on Thursday. The circumstances of the escapade were unusual. For about twelve months no hoy had absconded from the Farm, where nearly all of thdin show appreciation of the kindly treatment accorded them by the manager and staff, whose first interest is the boys’ welfare. Cases where renegade lads have had to be returned to the Farm during the past year were those of hoys who had cleared away from service on farms to which they had been drafted. On Thursday a picnic was held at Oliau River, at the east end of Kimlbea'ley Road, for between seventy and eighty of the boys, Who were taken on the excursion under supervision. In the morning the •manager, Mr. J. O’Donohue, had addressed the boys, when he referred to the good time that was provided for them at Christmas and the spirit of co-operation which it had engendered. He asked them if, on being trusted at the picnic they Would “play the game,” and they all replied that they would. Unfortunately there were some who were not to ibe rolled upon, as three of them slipped aiway from the picnic ground about one o’clock, and three more disappeared about 3 pJm.

The same evening the escapees visited the garages at the residences of Mr. P. O’Donnell, in Bartholomew Road, and Mr. 'S. C. Butt, in Kalwiu R-oad, in their search for a car to. take them further afield; but they were frustrated in each of these cases by the cars being locked. They proceeded then to Mr. A. M'ottershead’s, in Queenwood Road, where they (broke the garage door, found the Car unlocked, with three gallons of benzine in it, and drove away. On Friday the ear, abandoned at Halcombe, was found by the Feilding police. A search for the boys is being carried out by the police in that district, and it is expected that some of them will be located very soon. MISSING BOYS RECAPTURED. The escapees, three of whom illegally borrowed a ear at Levin and drove it as far as Halcombe, where they abandoned it, have all been run to earth. The three elder lads were arrested at Palmerston North on Saturday evening, where they appeared before the Court yesterday and were each sentenced to three years Borstal treatment. The other three hoys "were located at Kuku yesterday morning, and were returned to the Farm.