SUPREME COURT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 203, 12 June 1914, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

Mauku Case Heard. Admitted to Probation. In the Supreme Court, Auckland, on Thursday, William Kobinson, of Mauku, a youth rineteen years of age, who in the Pukekohe Magistrate's Court had {.leaded guilty to a cbatee of breakirg and entering and stealing a cheque fur £22 and f'jrging an endorsement un the same, cams up for sentence before Mr Justice Stringer. Mr J. R. Ree3, K.C., who, with Mr Black, appeared for the boy, said that the latter had been walking cn his father's farm and that he had received pocket money in return for hia Eersices. He had became addicted to billiard playing, and his expenditure on the game had exhaust-d hi 3 resource". On the evening of the offence he went into the house of a man for whom he had done a day's casual wurk. The door was practically open, being merely fixed by means of a nail and a piece of string. His employer was not there, and the lad put his hand into the pocket of a coat and, took cut the cheque. He endorsed the cheque and cashed it at an hotel. He spent a portion of the money, but £2O had btcn recovered from him and his father had paid the balance. Mr Reed suggested that, as the boy had taken the cheque under a s.:dden temptation, he should be-admitted to probation, and thac one of the conditions should be that he should be absolutely prohibited from entering billiard saloons during the period of probation. The ycuth bore an excellent character, and a large number of witnesses had vountarily attended the Court for the purpose of testifying t) his previous good conduct. The Hon. J. A. 'l'ole, K.C., Crown Solicitor, agreed that the lure of the billiard falo:n had led the boy to commit the offence. The Judge said that great careleesnesa had been shown in the cashing of a cheque clumsily endorsed and presented by an apparently unknown youth. He admitted the boy to probation for two years, on condition that, during that time, he should not enter hotels or billiard saloons, and that he should remain with his father. He was also ordered to pny the costs of the prosecution.