Serious Charge

NZ Truth, Issue 1215, 14 March 1929, Page 20

Serious Charge

Bad bargains there are m. plenty, but a particularly one-sided contract often is manifested m those illicit agreements between immature girls and hot-headed youths. ■ X PPARENTLY, Alexander Mac Don a ld, of Han&atiki, was encouraged by a young girl to become a party m one of these affairs, since he admitted the partnership, yet made it clear that she had misle,d him as to her age. Curiously enough, neither she nor her father could produce her birth certificate?fcpurporting to show she was only fifteen, while she told a jury when Mac Donald stood his trial at Hamilton", that she hoodwinked MacDonald into believing she was at least three years older. She, - a Te Kuiti waitress, and another girl made merry at a dance m Hangatiki, where they met Mac Donald and another man named Bill Porter. As the result of what were interpreted -as affectionate overtures, the girls were invited to share Mac Donald's tent at the Public Works roadside camp. ■ Mac Donald was quite frank about his contribution to the tent episode, yet declared that the girl 'had- misled him, and he made it clear that while he was guilty, of the compact, the girl had hot truthfully stated alf the conditions. He was acquitted by the jury. .