POLICE COURT,

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 49, 26 February 1918, Page 2

POLICE COURT,

(Before Mr T. V. Frazer, SJM.),

DRUNKENNESS. For iusobrietj-, John Invin (46) waa convicted and fined 5/, with 2/6 cab hire, in default of payment to undergo 24 hours' imprisonment. OBSCENE WORDS. Joseph Basil Xeary, a man of 34, with a fairly long police record, refused to plead either way when confronted with charges that he used obscene language in Queen Street last night and that he resisted a constable. The accused man said he did not know whether he w»a guilty or not. Constable Carney said he was attracted by Xeary,- who was gesticulating violently. When the constable set out to arrest him accused struck and kicked at him, using the obscene words complained about. Senior Sergeant McNamara prosecuted, and said Neary's bad language flowed ou for two hours. ' Accused had nothing whatever to say in explanation of his conduct. The magistrate spoke strongly about the circumstances. Keary had been a soldier, he said, and had gone beyond the bounds of ordinary resisting. lie waa fined £5 for using the bad language, and sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment without the option for resisting the police. CHARGE OF THEFT. A plea, of not guilty was entered by George Hastings (40), who stood charged I with the theft of two pairs of boots in I separate occasions eight days ago. Several witnesses gave evidence that the boots had been missed from places of exhibition in front of the shops, and Plain-clothes Constable Potter attested to seeing Hastings with something tucked under hie coat. Investigations showed that these articles were the boots, and accused could not explain away his possession. Hastings passed in a written statement that was quite beside the point, and said in explanation that he had found the boots in a paddock where he had slept. Hastings hnd many previous convictions, among which were 20 for theft. lie was convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment on each count, the times of durance to be cumulative. The magistrate remarked that this sentence was meant in kindness to accused more than anything else, as evidently he needed looking after.