GAOL BETTER THAN WORK.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 May 1916, Page 2

GAOL BETTER THAN WORK.

VAGRANT BEFORE THE COURT. DANGER OF GOING TO THE WAR. A preference for gaol rather than, work is admitted by a middle-aged man named John Mars-hall, who was charged before Mr. A. Crooke, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court yesterday with being an incorrigible rogue, in that lie was previously covicted of being a rogue and ! a vagabond. Marshall pleaded guilty. guilty. Senior-Sergeant Bowden said the mail had been before the Court at New Plymouth three months, ago and iliail spent the interval in gaol. "We don't know what to do with him," he added. ''He simply spends his time in and out of gaol. He was discharged fvoin prison last Monday, and the other day he came to the police and told them that he had been sleeping on the racecourse, and that he had no money. I wanted him to go and get work, 'hut he said he i would prefer to be in gaol, which was better than working. I then suggested that he should become a soldier, but he said that as he had no education he was afraid that if he- went to the war he might shoot the wrong man. T think the only charitable thing to do with this man is to sentence him to a long term of imprisonment." The Senior-Sergeant read out a long list of sentences to gaol which Marshall had received in the past few years. The Magistrate: The accused has already been in gapl for periods- of two years and twelve months. Senior-Sergeant Bowden: When he is out of gaol he is a nuisance to society. He spends his time prowling about the town at night frightening people. The Magistrate sentenced Marshall to twelve months' liapyisonmeatj