GIRL’S EXTRAORDINARY CRIME.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42759, 10 August 1905, Page 2

GIRL’S EXTRAORDINARY CRIME.

One of the most extraordinary cases in New Zealand criminology is involved in the proceedings which have been taken by the police against a young girl resident of Kumeroa near Woodville (says the Manawatu Times). The case for the police is that she was rid** ing along a road one day recently and came upon a mob of dairy cows. Acting under a sudden temptation she dr jvo the animals in front of her to Pahiatua, where the weekly stock sale hul just closed. The girl saw the auctioneer and be told her she was too late, but he called a dealer over and a-ked him to make an offer. He said £l (the owner valued them at £lO e;.ch) but a bystander offered £8 10s, and the girl got the cheque and rode away. The owner of the cattle was \ absent from the district, and when he returned advertised his lost cows, but in vain. Luckily for him but unluckily for the girl some of the cows changed hands and came into the possession of a neighbour some distance away. They were identified, the police com* 4 municited with, and the girl arrested. Meantime she had made use of a portion of the money to some advant« age, and fairly staggered local famine inity by appearing at a local ball in a wonderful dress which gained her a belledom. The incident is more painful and astonishing as the girl (who is 21 years of age) is of very respectable parentage, and c*uld not have been in n-ed of money for the ordiuary conifer, s and conveniences of life. She seems to have succumbed to an unfortunately sudden aad overwhelming hallucination. A telegram received later stated that the girl (Matilda McL mnan) pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing cattle, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence