REMARKABLE ESCAPADE.

Otaki Mail, Volume 27, 14 November 1919, Page 4

REMARKABLE ESCAPADE.

OF A NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY. ROBS MOTHER, STEALS BICYCLE. Mr Fisher, J.P., presided over what be truly called a pitiable case in tho Juvenile Court in Feilding on Wednesday morning. The"case” was a very small nine-year-old boy, the son of a Wellington wharf labourer, who stoic the sum of £lO 10s from a drawer in his mother’s room, stole a new bicycle, booked the latter and bought a railway ticket to Feilding, and landed there by tho Main Trunk train on Tuesday. Sergeant Cahill asked the Bench to remand the boy to Wellington, to be tried for tho offences charged against him. The remand was granted. The lad, in appearance, is a miserable little fellow, bare-legged and in slumlike clothing—a typical city guttersnipe, grimed with dirt. That there is keen intelligence and a remarkable memory, behind his dirty, pasty face is proved by the details ho supplied to Sergeant Cahill. He accounted not only for every penny, but even for a halfpenny spent —his totals tallied, and | there was actually a halfpenny change jin his pocket to make the tally.

Here is the highly interesting balance-sheet furnished by the boy, showing the things he bought, principally in Wellington:—

Two electric torches 15s, fare to Feilding ss, fare for bicycle Is 6d, two note books Is Gd, hand bags 13s, watch 7s 6d, chain 10s," sovereign case 7s Gd, lollies (bought in Feilding) 2s Gd, ice cream 7Jd, leather purse 2s Gd, two cakes soap 2s-Gd, pair sandals 4s Gd, given to boy on train 2s Gd, three dozen oranges 9s, three bottles lemonade Is, slot machine Is, three pies Is, pineapple 2s Gd, liquorice lollies sd, gooseberries Is 4d, total £4 12s 41d. Cash in his pockets when arrested, £5 17s 73d—£10 10s. The arrest was due to the suspicions of Mr Stewart, a Feilding grocer, who informed the police, and the boy was in charge within two hours of landing iu Feilding. It is astonishing that any tradespeople in the city should have supplied such a ragamuffin with, some of the articles he purchased, being suspicious in themselves for. such a boy. Sergeant Cahill remarked in Court that he wondered what the railway clerks in Wellington were about in letting such a waif have a ticket and booking a bicycle on his word. There is no reply to the question: Why did he take out a ticket for Feeding? The boy did not know himself why he chose Feilding. but he knew when to get off the train. ‘‘l never knew such a case,” observed the sergeant. ‘‘My boy. you’re to be pitied!” was Mr Fisher’s sympathetic farewell.