IN AGAIN: OUT AGAIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 146, 12 February 1932, Page 4

IN AGAIN: OUT AGAIN

SPORTING INSTINCT OF MANY i TIMES CONVICTED | PRISONER

BEFOKE ROTORUA COURT 1 "It is hard to know what to do with j : this man," said Senior-Sergeant Car- t : roll, when referring to charges of | theft and of being an idle aird disord- j erly person, brought against Jack E. Edwards, alias D. Kelly, and John Edwards, in the Rotorua Magistrate's Cofirt yesterday. "He goes into gaol for a period and then comes out for a holiday. He has the sporting instinct in this r'espect, anyhow" he ; concluded. | Owens was charged before Messrs. ' T. Sloane and H. Tai Mitchell with ! the theft of a micrometer at Hamilj toh and with being an idle and dis- ' orderly person in Rbtorua. ! The facts as revealed in the evi- ! dence giveit in the two cases, went 1 to show that Owens was suspected of 1 being an idle and disorderly person and arrested by Constable Kelly in i Rotorua on Wednesday. The con- ! stable had reason to suspect him of theft of the micrometer in Hamilton, 1 and taxed him with the offence. At { first Owens denied that he had been in Hamilton for the Iast nine months, j hut later he admitted that he had ! borrowed a micrometer and lost it. He was prepared to pay for the lost | instrument. The constable added • that the accused had represented to i the firm from which he borrowed the ' micrometer that he had a car and wished to measure a new shaft. On the charge of being idle and, disorderly," the evidence went to show that OwenS went to a Hindu storekeeper itt Rotorua and borrowed 5s on the representation that he had a car stuck up for the need of henzine. The Hindu lent him the money, but on watching his movemehts saw | that he went straight across to the I hotel. His sb'spicions were aroused and he went to the police. No Intention of Theft In his def eii'ce, Oweiis said he. had certainly borrowed the micrometer in : Hamilton without any intention of st ealing it, but he had gone into hotels after doing so axi'd had lost it. He was quite prepared to pay for a new one. He denied that he was idle and disorderly in Rotorua- and said that he was working for a Maori clergyman mending his car and digging potatoes. He had come into town for the purpose of buying a battery and had borrowed the 5s from the Hindu, ; leaving his hat and a tool as security. He had other cars to attend to if he had not been arrested. The 'clel-gyffian for whom he was working, said that he had been protnissed food and board and tobacco, but no wages. Senior-Sergeant Garroll said accused first came under the notice of jfche police in 1929 and since then had been convicted 16 times for various offences. He had been diseharged on. January 23 and went to Hamilton a few days after. He got work il the convent aiid was engaged to drive " a car to Cambridge, but got too jdrunlc to bring it home again. He then came on to Rotorua. _ . The bench decide'd to cohvict and discharge the accused on the chfirge pf heing idle and disorderly and sen1 teiib'e'd hihi to "one month's imprisoninent for theft.