COURT'S WARNING TO YOUTH WHO GAVE FALSE INFORMATION

Taupo Times, Volume VI, Issue 287, 8 August 1957, Page 6

COURT'S WARNING TO YOUTH WHO GAVE

FALSE INFORMATION

Four eharges at Taupo Police Court before Mr W. A. Marlow, S.M.., were a costly experleoce last week for 19-year-old Maurice Maxwell Terito; it amounted to £16 all told. He was fined £1 15s and costs £1 for being under the age of 21 when he bought liquor at the Wairakei Ilotel ; £5 and costs £1 5s for knowingly supplying false fnformation that he was tlie holder of a driving licence, to obt.ain a reutal vehicle; costs £1 for driving a car without holding a licence; £5 and costs £1 for obtaining possession of a .22 rifle from Wiri Parata, without procuring a permit. SOUGHT KIFLE PERMIT Sergeant N. C. Waters said that at 3 p.m. 011 June 27, Terito called at the police station and sought a permit to buy a rifle. Ile was refused because of his demeanour and known history. At six o'clock the sergeant and Con- ■ stable I). W. Mills saw Terito and Gordon Williams, 21, wlio was then working - at Wairakei, in a rental car at Wairakei. "Terito was questioned, and we found that he had obtained a rental car with Williams's driving licence. In the back of the car were six kottles of beer which had been bought at the Wairakei Hotel, and a .22 rifle.

"Terito said he had borrowed the rifle from a youth named Whiri Paratu, because he wanted to go shooting. Parata afterward admitted that he had handed the rifle to Terito, on the understanding that it was returned to Taneatua, where Parata lives." Sergeant Waters said Williams, who now lives at Edgecumbe, had written pleading guilty to a hreach of ihe transport regulations. Terito, he said, had previous convictions. Williams was fined £5 and costs £1. "IS IRRESPONSIBLE" Mr Harlow Said to Parata, who had pleaded guilty to a breaeh of the Arms Act : Tlie provisions of the Act exist for the very purpose of keeping lethal weapons out of the hancls of criminals and irresponsibles. "Terito is not the sort of person who should have aecess to weapons ; he is irresponsible. If there is any further evidence of irresponsibility 011 your part, we shall be taking the rifle away from yop." Parata was fined £2 and costs £1. To Terito, Mr Harlow said: "All four of your ofi'ences point back to oue thing — that you are an irresponsible person . . . you had 110 right to the rifle, and you have no right to drink, or to go into botels ..." He then imposed the penalties already reported.