WAITING AT THE CHURCH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 275, 17 May 1912, Page 6

WAITING AT THE CHURCH

BRIDEGROOM ROBBING A HOTEL. By Telegraph—Press Association. j Auckland, May 15. i Keith Ijfcussell Jones, a well-dressed young fellow of 23, who had come only recently from Sydney, admitted to Mr. Cutten, S.M., at the Police Court this morning, that he had stolen £7 10s from a room in one hotel and a cheque book and purse containing £1 from bedrooms in another hotel. The history of the man given hy Chief Detective Marsack was unusual. He had arrived in Auckland about three months ago, and had been for some time employed canvassing for a photographer, and later as steward on a small coastal boat. He had arranged to be married to a young lady on May 1, but the bride waited for him at the church, and he failed to turn up. He stayed at a hotel for a time, and, while there (also on the fateful May day when he was due to be otherwise engaged), he entered another boarder's room and stole £7 10s. He moved to a hotel in Newmarket, and . while there took a xoom-mate's chequebook, and also stole from a servant girl's room a purse containing £l. At one period of his Auckland experience he took a fancy to motoring, and ran up a bill of £5 lO.s with a taxi-cab owner. He paid the bill with William Wooden's money, captured at the Waverley Hotel. The accused, who appeared to have little sense of respo- Ability, explained that he committed t' thefts because he was stranded, and the taxi-cab man was pressing in his demands. He added incidentally that he had private reasons for not meeting his expected bride at the church, and said he had given her notice in time to have prevented her going there. He said he was a traveller, but he had been studying accountancy, and he had been drawn to New Zealand I by a desire to see a young lady in the South Island. His Worship said he could not help a young man who committed theft after theft in the way the accused had done. He would he sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard 'labor.