POLICE COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 38, 14 February 1910, Page 6

POLICE COURT.

(Before Messrs. B. Kent and G. W. 6. Patterson, J.P.'s.) THE DRUNKARDS. Christopher Fitzsimmons was released from gaol on Saturday, after having served a *hort sentence for fighting, and at the end of three hours' liberty he was so drunk that he had to be locked up again. He was fined 10/, and at his own request a prohibition order was issued against him. James George Skinner, a middle-aged man, who nearly brought his horse and trap into collision with a tramcar at Epsom on Saturday, was fined £5 for having been drunk while in charge of the horse. He was also prohibited. James Given, drunk on the Norbhcote Ferry Tee very early on Sunday morning, was fined £1, in default seven days' imprisonment. William Burns Thompson was fined 5/ or 24 hours, James Ferguson was fined 1/, and James Simpson forfeited his bail, £1. James Downey, an habitual drunkard, charged with five breaches of his prohibition order, woe remanded until to-morrow. Kate Wallace, for drunkenness and procuring liquor while prohibited, was remanded until to-morrow. ALLEGED EMBEZZLEMENT. Robert Thompson, a man of about 35 years of age, who has been employed as a clerk in the office of the Grey Lynn Borough Council, was charged with having misappropriated va ous moneys, the property of the i, amounting in all to some £100. He was remanded until Wednesday, bail being allowed in two sureties of £50 or one of £100. Mr. W. E. Hackett appeared for the accused. AN EXEMPLARY SENTENCE. Andrew Arthur White was charged with his third offence of having used obscene language. Incidentally he was also charged with having been drunk, with having procured liquor while prohibited, and with being an habitual drunkard. This man alwa3-s gets into trouble in the same way. First he comes to town, then he gets drunk, and then he is apt to do anything, but he can be relied upon to use bad language. The particular language in respect of which he was charged this morning was used in a railway carriage without any provocation whatever. i_e was put off the train at Remuera, and then he loosed another flood of obscenity. The Bench was of opinion that the offence was one which ought to be put down with as firm a hand as possible. Accused was convicted, and sent to gaol for a year. The other charges were wi-h-drawn. HUSBAND AND WIFE. On the evening of Sunday; the 6th February, Edward Bowles met his wife, Agnes Jane Bowles, in the Albert Park at about eight o'clock. She was accompanied by her daughter Dorothy, aged 14, and there was a man there also, by name Daniel Stewart. Then something liappened as the result of which Airs. Bowles was rather badly bruised on various parts of the body, and more particularly on the left eye. There was something of noise,, a crortvd colleoted, and Bowles was arrested. To-day ho was charged with having assaulted his wife by kicking her on the head. The facts a_out the rela/tions of the Bowles, husband and wife, are that the couple have not agreed at all —-ell, -ha., -they do not live together, and that the ___ba_d has instituted divorce proceedings, in which Stewart is named as co-respondent. The story of tlie assault as told by Mrs. Bowles and Dorothy was that they met Stewart, not by appointment, and had been in conversation with him for only a few moments when Bowles arrive—, He at once took the aggressive, calling Stewart an objectionaible name, and began to throw stones at him. Stewart ran away, and then Bowles turned his attentions to his wife, and, it is alleged, beat her severely, knocked hex down, and kicked her. Defendant's own story was rather different. He pleaded extreme provocation, and admitted a technical assault, but not a savage, brutal attack. He said that he caught hold of his wife to prevent her running away, that she escaped and ran away, and that she fell down twice while running down the hill. Accused was convicted and fined £5. He was also bound over in two sure— es of £25 or one of £60 to keep the peace for twelve months.