“I'm No Criminal”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 53, 25 May 1927, Page 1

“I'm No Criminal”

OLD SOLDIER’S PROTEST A GREY STREET CHAMPION jp'IFTEEN years ago Grey Street was a living bed of crime. It was cleared, however, and when it was in a clean state it should have been kept clean. Grey Street should be made an example of. These remarks of Mr. W. B. Mcllveney, Commissioner of Police, obviously unfair because of their generalisation, have fired at least one man in Auckland with an indignation which he hat not hesitated to express.

Loud in protest, he came to THE SUN office yesterday afternoon seeking the championing he deserved. “I have lived in Auckland for 53 years/* he said, “and for a long time my home has been in Grey Street. That policeman has condemned mo in condemning the street. I am not

a criminal. ... I have never been inside a court. But I did fight during the Maori War, and four of my sons have graves in Flanders. Yet, because I live in Grey Street I must be numbered among the criminals that man talks about. He is wrong and unjust in what he said/* When he spoke of his dead sons the old man wept.

A young girl, who applied for her first domestic situation yesterday, was turned away without further consideration when she gave her address as Grey Street. So it is that some people take note of the remarks of men whose position gives their statements authority, whether it is deserved or not.