BURGLARY AND FIRES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1922, Page 4

BURGLARY AND FIRES.

A YOUTH’S WILD CAREER. EXTRAORDINARY STORY. By Teiegraph —Press Asaociatio... Hamilton, Last Night. A rather extraordinary story was revealed at the Police Court, -when Eric Robert Burnett, aged seventeen, who only arrived in the Dominion 17 months ego, was charged with breaking into several business premises at Morrinsville and stealing small amounts; with breaking into several railway stations between Morrimville and Hamilton; and also with burning down the Morrinsville railway bookstall and attempting to burn the Motumaoho railway station.

Evidence was given that accused, after the burglaries at Morrinsville, and after setting alight to the bookstall, stole a jigger and proceeded to Hamilton, burglarising stations en route. He caught the express for Auckland, where he was arrested the same night. The. prisoner, in a written statement, admitted the offences. He ©aid ho did not know what prompted him to set fire to the Morrinsville bookstall and tne Motumaoho station. He did the act deliberately, putting a match to the hooks and papers at the bookstall and leaving a kerosene lamp, which he had lit, burning. He saw the place in flames as he made his way along the line towards Motumaoho. When he arrived at this station and found nothing worth stealing, he unscrewed the burner off a lamp and threw kerosene about the floor. He placed the burner in a drawer amongst some papers and set fire to the wick. He also set fire to some papers stacked in the corner of the office. It was -stated prisoner had already served six weeks’ imprisonment for stealing a purse containing £3l from a ;ady seated next him during a prayer at a service at the Baptist Tabernacle at Auckland. Prisoner pleaded guilty to all charge* and was committed for sentence at Auckland.