POLICE COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 76, 31 March 1913, Page 5

POLICE COURT.

(Before Mt E. C. Ctrtten, S.M.). DRUNKENNESS. A statutory first offender most emphatically did not concur when it wae suggested that he should be made the subject of a prohibition order, on the ground that he previously had an order out and it had got him into trouble. His wife, from whom he was separated, was just as emphatic in stating that a prohibition order would be a very good thing for her one-lime affinity, and the man wae prohibited. Another statutory first offender, who had no wife, was fined 10/; and still another, who also wae the victim of an occasion rather than of a habit, also had to pay 10/ far it. William Betts. whose sixth offence within six months drew attention to the fact that he was approaching his century, having 90 previous convictions, was sentenced to 14 days' hard labour.

A quartet of actual first offenders were convicted and discharged, while Te Anini, whoee spree was in violation of a prohibition order, was fined 40/. John Robert Price, who 'had been found helplessly drunk in the street yesterday, was remanded for a week's "medical "trea-tment. THE FOOD OF THE PUBLIC. "No bread is ever found to be overweight, I notice," commented Inspector McGrath when it was contended for Terence McQuillen, ibaker, charged that he had sold short-weight .bread-, that it was very difficult to gauge the weight of dough required to give a 41b loaf when it was baked. On this occasion 13 loaves had been weighed by a Health Office Inspector, and they were all found to be short of the standard by amounts ranging from loz up to half a pound. McQuillen was fined £2 and 19/6 costs. Thomas Strange, for the same offence, was fined £2, and 9/ costs. Robert Bell admitted that he had sold for public consumption-some milk that contained water it ought not to have contained, but denied that he had any personal knowledge of ho-w the water got there. The defendant was fined £5 and costs. AN HOTEL THEFT. Arthur John Fitzgibbons, aged 34, who had l>een found loitering on the premises of the Grosvenor Hotel late on Wednesday night, and handed over to the police, was found, when searched at the police station, to ibe in possession of a metal watch and a chain which had been taJcen from the room of Ernest E. Balderson, in the hotel. He admitted having stolen the watch and chain, and was sentenced to two months' hard la.bour. A MAN AND SIS MONEY. Annie Enwright, aged 36, was charged with having stolen 19/6 belonging to Ernest Thomas Langford. I-jingford's s-tory was that in Grey Street, at about 0.30 p.m. last Monday, the woman asked him to give her a drink. He took her into a soft-drinks j shop, and bought two bottles of lemonade, tendering a£l note. The shopwoman put the change, 19/6, on ttie : counter, and Enwright at once picked it up, and put it in her h.and'bag. When asked for it. she replied, '"It's all right," but Langford didn't think it was all right, and he went for a constable, who , who made the woman turn out her handbag, heard the story all round, and then I arresrted Enwright.

Tlie accused woman said that she picked up the change intending to return it to the man, but when they got out of the shop he made a suggestion which she indignantly refused to countenance, and he thereupon refused to take his money, and went and brought a policeman, saying she had taken his cash. The magistrate, after hearing the evidence of the two parties particularly concerned, the policeman, a.nd the shopwoman, sentenced Enwright to two months' hard labour. MISCELLANEOUS. Walter Farmer. forJHtreating a horse Tiy beating it cm-lh with a whip, was fined £2. and 44/ costs. Alexander Scott, for having stolen a raincoat from the shep front of Smith and Caughey's, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called on.