LARCENY OP SHOES.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1087, 17 September 1883, Page 2

LARCENY OP SHOES.

A youth named Kipps Baldwin was brought up before Capt. Wray, R.M., and R, C. Tennant Esq., J. P., on Saturday, charged with the larceny of a pair of running shoes, valued at £l, the property of Thomas Henry Connor, and which were taken from the Railway goods shed on Sept. 11. *

Sergeant Donovan conducted tincase for the prosecution, prisoner, who pleaded not guilty, being undefended. Thomas Henry Connor, the prosecutor, said that he was a porter at the Patea Railway Station, Recollected Tuesday, 11th inst., on which date he lost a pair of boots. The boots were in the Railway goods shed. He had taken them out of the box on Monday, and when he went to put them back again on Tuesday afternoon they were gone. Had seen them on the Tuesday morning. The shed was open to the public. Would know the boots if he saw them. Those (produced) were the ones. • They were not in the same condition when witness -last saw them. They were not greased then, and they had laces in. Could not be certain that he saw prisoner in the shed that day, but he saw a boy very like him playing with another named Slattery near where the shoes were, between the time when witness last saw them, and when they were missed. Reported loss to police. Valued shoes at £l.

Prisoner had ho questions to ask. Constable Orozier staled that the last witness reported to him on Thursday, the 18th inst, the loss ot the shoes in question,from the Railway goods shed. Witness 'made enquiries, and from information received suspected prisoner. Spoke to him yesterday at Courthouse about the shoes. Prisoner admitted finding a pair of shoes and afterwards gave them to witness. Prisoner said ho found them in the Railway yard. Witness then arrested prisoner on a charge of stealing the shoes,

Prisoner said that he found the shoes on the railway crossing. He had not taken any steps to find the owner. MrG. Buckley gave evidence as'to the good character the accused had borne while in his employ, and Sergeant Ddnovan asked the Court tddeal lightly with prisoner, as it was a first offence. The Court thought that prisoner’s statement about the finding of the shoes was rather a lame story. They did not like to send a boy so young as the prisoner to gaol, so he would be dismissed with a caution, and they hoped he would not find himself in such a position, again.