JOY-RIDING.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1920, Page 3

JOY-RIDING.

CULPRITS BEFORE THE COURT. At the Patea Magistrate's Court on Thursday, before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., Walter Corrigan (17), Gordon Leslie McArthur (17) Ewart Morton (10), and Arthur Edward Gordcn (20). were charged with having taken a Maxwell motor car belonging to Mr. Crosbie, of the Kalcaramea Dairy Factory, on New Year's Eve,'without his authority, and having driven' it from Patea to Manutahi. On the way back to Patea the car went over the Manutahi Gorge and was badly damaged, the damage amounting, in the opinion of an expert called to give evidence, to beI tween £BO and £IOO. Sergeant Henry prosecuted, Mr. J. B. Dunn ap- ' peared for the defendant Corrigan, who drove the car, and Mr. P. O'Dea for the owner of the car, Crosbie. Mr. Dunn asked that the youths (who worked at the Patea Freezing Works) might be given a chance and suggested that they be convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, provided they paid for the damage done. The Magistrate, after pointing out that the defendants were Ivable to imprisonment, adopted the course suggested by counsel, and ordered the defendants to come up for sentence at any time within nine months provided: (1) they abstained from intoxicating liquors and were not found on licensed premises; (2) reported once a month to the police; (3) paid £4.) each to the owner of the car to- ! gother with the legal expenses incurred I In- him. at the rate of 30s a week each. His Worship said, that although the actual,repairs might amount to £IOO, he considered {he car had depreciated £BO as a result of the accident in the gorge, and the defendants must therefore pay £IBO between them. He trusted it would be a lesson to them.