A WASTER IN UNIFORM.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 108, 15 November 1915, Page 4

A WASTER IN UNIFORM.

A young man who had managed | to spetid a considerable amount of | time in tbe uniform of a soldier | without getting anwyhere near the . firing line, came before Mr E. C. Cutten, S.M , in Auckland on Thursday last, in the person of Thomas Francis Hill, aged 25 years. The history of his lift! as a soldier, as retailed by Sub-Inspector Mcllveuey, was that he joined tbe Main Expeditionary Force, but after some weeks was discharged because of his unruly conduct and generally bad disposition. He, however, managed to retain bis uniform, and on tbe strength of it bad a generally gnod time about the bars in Auckland. Eventually he was detected begging from real soldiers in uniform arid brought before the Court. That on May 3rd, and he then explained that ha wore the uniform because he had no other clothes and no means to get a fresh outfit. He was given a chance then by being convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, and he was given an outfit by the Kev. F. Jeffreys, while another gentleman supplied his Bteamer fare to a place where he said he could get work. He did not go to work there but went on to Fukekohe, where he came under the notice of tbe police and got a sentence for vagrancy. By some means he got back into the Expeditionary Force recently, and on last Wednesday he was found drunk in uniform in Auckland. The military authorities had now intimated that they wanted no more of bim, and the police had brought him up on the old vagrancy charge on which he was ordered to come up for sentence when called on, as he appeared to be an absolute waster, who had made no effort at all to settle down to honest work, and seemed determined to bring w the uniform into disgrace. He had absented himself from camp for eight days, and had finally been found drunk in the city. Hill protested at being brought up on a charge that was over six months' old, but his Worship told him he bad had his chance and didn't take it, consequently he would be sentenced to three months' hard labour.