The Irresistible Rifle: An Unappreciated Gift James Molyneux, a member of the crew of the Celtic Prince, appeared before Mr. G. W. King at S M. Police Court, on Monday, charged with having stolen a Lee-Enfield rifle from the British Consulate on Sunday morning.
Sub-Inspector Dee appeared for the Police.
The case for the prosecution was that the defendant walked into a carpenter's shop in Seward Road about noon on Sunday, carrying a rifle. He placed it carefully on the floor behind a table, and having drunk a cup of tea already poured out, walked out again, leaving the rifle. Not appreciating the gift the carpenter—who described the incident with a lovely smile—immediately put both the rifle and the defendant into the hands of the police. It was afterwards found that the rifle had been taken from a stack in the British Consulate.
Molyneux explained that he had been drinking, and called at the Consulate on Sunday morning to get some money. As he was leaying his eye caught sight of a stack of rifles. Something possessed him to put one on his shoulder, and he marched off with it. He went a little way and fell asleep, somewhere near the Public Gardens.
His Worship:—Not under the magnolia trees in the Public Garden?
Molyneux said he did not know where, but he afterwards badly wanted to get rid of the rifle and so put _in it in the carpenter's shop. It was a drunken freak. He did not intend to steal it, or hurt anyone, His Worship came to the conclusion that "larceny" had not been proved and dismissed the defendant, whose chief ambition then seemed to be to leave the court precincts in the quickest possible
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.