SEQUEL TO STUDY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8349, 8 February 1913, Page 13

SEQUEL TO STUDY

CIVIL ENGINEER'S MENTAL BALANCE UPSET. . HIGHER MATHEMATICS. STRANGE THEFT CHARGE. LONDON. December' 29. The remarkable defence of "nervous manifestations" and the strain of higher mathematical study was put forward at Westminster Police Court on the charge of theft from* the Army and Navy Stores, preferred against Wm. Bray Olivant. 31, civil engineer, and leading draughtsman in the employ of Vickers, Limited, armament contractors. Accused was detected during the Christmas crush at the stores slipping books under his coat and into his pockets and then leaving without payment. At his residence at Hampstead, thirty-three more books were found bearing the stores' marks. Some of these prisoner said ho had paid for —others he admitted stealing. When arrested he said he did not know how he had stooped so low. Mr B. D. Muir, counsel for the accused, with a plea of “guilty," submitted that the defendant could not, in any

sense, bo catalogued with tbe ordinary shoplifting thief. It was on a Friday he went to the stores—certainly an unlucky day for him—when sabering from nervous trouble. Accused had been fifteen years with Messrs Vickers, the only interruption to continuous service being tho qualifying period for a scholarship at Sheffield University, Mr Olivant had to. make very elaborate calculations with regard to the manufacture of ordnance; out of tho office he had studied the higher branches of tho science of gunnery, and he was engaged at the Patent Office there studying technical research in connection with his work. Accused was in receipt of a considerable salary, and as he baa no reason to steal, tho only reason which could be assigned for his conduct was his irresponsibility through over study. Mr George Buokham, a director, of Vickers. Limited, gave accused a fifteen years' character, and a doctor who had known defendant nine years deposed that tho strain of his work and mathematical study must have upset his moral balance. Mr Horace Smith accepted the recognisances of the father of the defendant to bring him up for judgment if required within twelve months. In the next case —shoplifting froqi Gcrringe's Christmas bazaar —. a bouse parlourmaid. May Hards, of Brigton road, Sutton, was defended by Mr Conway, solicitor, who characterised tbe girl’s action as the imbecile fascination of the feminine mind for showy things. The Magistrate decided as in the last case, and tho mother of the accused tearfully became surety for her future good behavious.