LETTER TAMPERING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 86, 2 October 1911, Page 2

LETTER TAMPERING

CORRESPONDENCE OPENED. I YOUNG MEN COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE. Auckland, September 28. I A young woman named Daisy Deeming, .residing at Hikurangi, had suspicions that letters addressed to her were being tampered with in transit. The services of a detective were enlisted, with the result that three young men, named Joel Vicar, Rowley Charles Berry Simons and William Holman Henderson, appealed before Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., at the Whangarei Magistrate's Court. Bowley, who is a railway official at Hikurangi, was charged with that, on or about June Ist, he did open a letter posted 'by Daisy Deeming, and Simons, a postal official, was charged with having allowed the offence to be committed. Henderson was charged with having destroyed a parcel of circulars, and was further charged, in conjunction with the accused Rowley, that he did open letters addressed to two natives named Peone and Ruapekapeka. (Mr. Steadman appeared for Rowley and Mr. Harrison for the other two accused.

Detective Hollis and Constable Armstrong gave evidence that, as the result of a complaint made early in June last, the former proceeded to Hikurangi, and as the result 1 ' oT 'inquiries Simons made a confession and implicated the othei two accused. Simons, in this confession, admitted opening nine or ten letters, and said he did it for fun. They wert mostly letters from young women to their lovers. Miss Deeming, in evidence, said that she had been keeping company with Rowley, but a coolness sprang up between them. Soon after she wrote to a young man in and subsequently a remark that Rowley made concerning the contents of the letter made her suspicious. Several letters she had received showed signs of being tampered with, and as the result of the detective's investigations Rowley had come to her and asked her to Bhield him, but she refused.

The charges against Henderson and Rowley of having opened letters addressed to Peone and Ruapekapeka were withdrawn by tie police. The three accused pleaded guilty to all the other charges and were committed to the Auckland Supreme Court for sentence.