ORCHARD ROBBING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 69, 20 February 1884, Page 2

ORCHARD ROBBING.

fVarton Paper.] We draw the particular attention of boys and. others to a case heard at the Bulls E.M. Court on Thursday, m which two lads were charged with robbing the orchard of Constable Manning and only escaped severe punishment on the expressed wish of the constable that the lads might be dealt leniently with. Robberies of this kind have become an .intolerable nuisance, jiad of very frequent occurrence lately, and .we warn boys who 'have a partiality for the v forbidden fruit" and other gHvden-prptkce to pause before giving way to temtation, because iv future the punishment will, if they are detecled, be very severe. For "the information of those -whom it may concern, we., will. , quate , the , penalties >ttachihg-to at crime o^f this nature. jßy section 36 of '" The " Earceiiy let, j 18 ? V£ |W :commit the offonder'to gaol/ with Jr (without hard Tabou*, for any term not exceeding six tnonttis ; or he may order the prisoner 1 to forfeit and ■' pay, rlvWi and above the value of the Vrtic&lstolen or the amount, of injury done; a" ' sum of money not exceeding £20, as to the Justice shall seetahmeetlniMv ward, on .they recommendation rof thiH ■constable, exerowed, the^qwer ? giflfo ; •him under section. l9,o. of the Justices X>f the Peace Act, which r says that j(jthe value of the property . stolen does npt^ exceed 20s he may dismiss the .case, although a felony may have been proved. This -is a very merciful = clause, and m exercising it the magistrate thought no doubt 1 that' the unpleasant •* position iv which the boys,jn } the case,- referred./to i found themselves would be a sufecien*; caution to them (and qthem. o ßnt we: would point out to youths who have'a'pencluint for pilfering gardens that a magistrate can only exercise this lemeucy when the value of the articles stolen is under 20sv If they are worth more than 20s he has no option butlo convict. Seeing, then, thaLlhjs magistrate has intijfnatecl that he will deal severely with'thef ;*ext jejase of the kind brought before'bite, we 1 " pSU'Wio the boys plainly, "that should any of them be detected m .futtire they" run the risk ot getting Mx'mMtW imprisonment. „;; *„..., '■ „- „ .