POLICE COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 20, 23 January 1917, Page 2

POLICE COURT.

(Before Mr. F. V. Frazer, SM.) DRUNKENNESS. A first offender was fined 5/, and Edward R. Campbell (76), up for an indecent act in Moore Street, was able to give a feasible excuse, and he was convicted and discharged. THEY KNEW NOTHING. Frank Toms (32), charged with threatening behaviour in Victoria Street, said that he had no recollection whatever of the incident. All the police knew about it was that Toms apd a soldier were drinking together, and quarrelled, with the result that Toms got the other man down on the street and was trying to choke him when a constable arrived. Both men were in liquor, and neither s-jmed to know what he was doing or -what the trouble was about. The soldier j got away in the crowd, and Toms was) arrested. Toms was fined 10/. MISCELLANEOUS. Francis Edward Higgins (39), charged that about January 15, being a servajit of the British Imperial Oil Co., he received 38/4 and fraudulently omitted to account for same, was remanded for a week, bail being fixed in one surety of £100. I

John Smith (26), arrested on a warrant issued at Rawene, admitted the paternity of four illegitimate children, and it was explained that he and the mother had been living together at a Maori settlement, hut had had a dispute resulting in his going away. The fixing of the amount was adjourned till Saturday, pending information from the mother of the children. For "cutting the corner" when motoring from Queen Street to Weliesley Street, George White was fined 10/ and 7/ costs. (Before Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M.) ANTI-SHOUTING CASE. John Reid was charged under the war 'regulations that he "shouted" for Robert j Brown in the Hobson Hotel on December 27. The evidence of two probationary constables was to the effect that they saw Brown and Reid have a drink together, and Reid put down sixpence on the counter and received no change. Both Brown and Reid declared that each paid for his own drink, Reid putting down a threepenny bit and Brown three coppers, while the barman said he had no definite recollection of the matter, but that he made a practice of strictly enforcing the rule that each man must pay for his own drink.

His Worship decided to convict, and Reid was fined £10 and costs.

Brown, on the same evidence, was convicted of breaking the war regulations by having a drink paid for by Reid, but as he was not a person of normal mentality and in poor circumstances he was merely convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called on.

John Reid's fine of £10 w_e reduced to £5 in view of his financial circumstances.