THE CHRISTCHURCH CHURCH ROBBERIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2684, 14 December 1909, Page 5

THE CHRISTCHURCH CHURCH ROBBERIES.

ARREST OF TWO SUSPECTS

[Pun. Pkess Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 13. Two youths have been arrested on a charge of" having committed the series of robberies in a large number of churches in the city and suburbs a few weeks ago. About a dozen churches were broken into, and money boxes, set apart for charitable purposes, were ransacked. Only small sums of money were obtained, and even the total was not large, but the peculiar nature of the crimes attracted some attention at the time, hue arrests were made at Molesworth station, about forty-five miles north of Hanmer, • by Detectives Ward and Gibson yesterday. The two youths, who are about seventeen or eighteen years old, and who reside in Christchurch, were suspected by the police. ' One of them has been before the Court on a charge of petty theft. They were traced by means of the small change which they took fro-u the boxes. As soon as the first thefts were, reported, the detectives kept -a touch with tradesmen and others, ,and ascertained l that the young fellows-had gone to a shopkeeper and asked him to give them large coins for a number of sixpenny and threepenny pieces, nies,,and half-pennies. When the shopkeeper asked them liow,they cam© into possession of so much, small change, they stated that they had won it at “two-up.”