A WARNING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 December 1931, Page 6

A WARNING

TWO MEN CONVICTED FOR DISMANTLING P.W.D. HUTMENTS USED MATERIAL FOR CAMP A case which the police stated had been brought by the Public Works Department as a warning, was heard in the Rotorua Magistrate's Court yesterday when two men, Frederick . Gallagher and William Parker, were charged with committing mischief by wilfully damaging P.W.D. hutments. Both men admitted dismantling portions of an abandoned works hutj ment and re-erecting it for their own I purposes. Gallaher appeared in person to enter a plea of guilty, and Parker also pleaded guilty through his solicitor Mr. J. D. Davys. Senior-Sergeant Carroll, for the police stated that both defendants had arrived in Rotorua last May with a horse and gig carrying camp equipment, their intention being to catch wild horses in the vicinity of the Taupo Road. They set up their camp but during a storm, it was blown down. They then helped themselves to some abandoned Public Works hutments and re-erected them about three miles away in the scrub. Both men had been quite frank and had admitted dismantling the hutments although they stated that they thought they were abandoned and that they could help themselves without asking permission. The Department wished the cases brought merely as a warning to others who might be inclined to help themselves. Both men had good reputations and nothing previously was known against them. Asked if he had anything to say, Gallagher stated that he had lost his position owing to this trouble and was at present out of work. He would like time to pay any fine that might be inflicted. One in Hospital Mr. Davys stated that Parker had been very seriously injured by a fast

travelling car on the Ngongotaha Road and was at present in hospital, where he would have to remain for a further nine or ten months. Even then it was doubtful whether he would be discharged and able to take work. He was a farm labourer earning small wages and had no money. Mr. Davys stated that her was handicapped by the fact that he had received no instructions from Parker, who had merely forwarded the summons to him and had requested him to enter a plea of guilty. A conviction was entered in each case and the two men ordered to pay their respective costs, in addition to £1 6s 6d apiece to repain the damage to the hutments. They were. allowed a month to find the money.