STEVENS STIFFENED.

NZ Truth, Issue 101, 25 May 1907, Page 6

STEVENS STIFFENED.

Three Years' Hard.

A member of the unscrupulous, morally diseased trite that givepo-* licemen and gaolers' work, had Ms latest escapade published at the Chris fcoh-ureh Supreme Court when assault and roMrery was the topic ol > conversation among those immediately concerned. Judge Chapman acting as referee. Ernest Albert Stevens has made a capital start on crime's race track, young as he is ; he has a really nice record, mostly for, thieving, hut he has done time for vagrancy. The swine wont work when there's a prospect of easy money. Coming, down from Wellington on the M-a-raaroa he got m with a laborer named Thomas Henry Olliver, who had knocked up a bit of a cheque near Dar.navirke ard Hawke's Bay. The pair visited various boozeries m the city, and a-s Stevens ycariierl for the picturesque they toddled along to the Botanical Gardens, going into some shrubs for a rest away from ■injfjuisit'ive eyes. Possibly, Stevens thought that Olliver was raetty well on, or that hv wouldn't feel him fiddling round his back-pock-et. At all events Stevens had a go, but the other wasn't the corpse he looked ; lie was eminently sober, m face., and when he wanted to know tilings Slovens helted him, and he retaliated. His cries for help alarmsd the aggressor, wlio made off without cash, . mid with a good chance oV Leing judged "if recognised. Later 'on lie was both recognised end jugy*?;! . -People Possessing his carmine cheeks are never hampered by religious scruples, but. when he was tried at the Supreme Court he didn't perjure Ms immortal soul out by giving evidence on oath. Lawyer Hunt addressed i-he jury on his behalf, Jbut the jury didn't think, much of Stevens, and signified the r*ame m the usual manner. ' The fellow ft3d been up so many times "before that the 'Jii'djie gave him a hot lecture, and a retirinn; allowance of tliree rears. He^ hasn't got to work out .the Jeoture, however.