ILLEGAL USE OF PETROL

Southland Times, Issue 24873, 13 October 1942, Page 5

ILLEGAL USE OF PETROL

MAORI GIVEN LARGE QUANTITIES (PA.) NAPIER, October 12. „ “To my mind it is a case of sabotage, commented the Magistrate, Mr J. Miller, in convicting a native, Whui Carroll, a married man with 12 children, on three charges of obtaining oil fuel otherwise than for the purposes set out in applications made to the oil fuel controller. Carroll was sentenced to three months imprisonment on the first two charges, the sentences to be cumulative, and fined £3O on the third charge. The defendant pleaded guilty. Detective Sergeant K. Mills said that between January 5 and June 30 Carroll drew no less than 911 gallons of petrol allegedly to cut and haul firewood, and on his own admission the total quantity used was sufficient to cut only 30 cords of wood, estimated by himself to be 15 gallons. On his own estimate he misused 896 gallons since the beginning of the year. Carroll had confessed that he had used much of the petrol for his own running about and had given away some 250 gallons. Continuing, Detective Sergeant Mills said Carroll on April 16 was granted a disability pension of £llO a year for total disability. During the period from April to June Carroll drew 528 gallons of petrol’ allegedly to cut and haul firewood, yet he was in receipt of a pension for total disability and was certified as unfit for any manual work. “It is undoubtedly the worst case of the kind to come before the Court in the district and I doubt if a more serious case has occurred in New Zealand up to the present time,” he said. COUNSEL’S COMMENT Mr E. V. Simpson, counsel for the defendant, said the case wpuld have been worse had it been a European who was involved. Carroll was uneducated and had no real sense of figures. The defendant did not see anything wrong in giving petrol to men he borrowed lorries from. Mr Simpson said he could not understand the controller granting petrol to a Maori not in business with no vehicles of his own. Carroll had been lulled into a sense of security by the ease with which he obtained petrol. t Mr Miller said the fact that a native should obtain large quantities of petrol to be frittered away was a matter for the authorities to look into and if necessary the regulations should be tightened up. Subsequently three natives, Kore Tunua (Fernhill), Broughton David Edwards (Bridge Pah) and Dudley Cyril August (Waimarama) were charged with breaches of the Oil Fuel Regulations. Detective Sergeant Mills said the defendants had lent trucks to Carroll and obtained petrol, on Cafrdll’s licence.

Tunua was convicted and fined £lO and August and Edwards were each fined £2O.