POLICE COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 77, 31 March 1922, Page 2

POLICE COURT.

(Before Mr: J. "VV. Poynton, SJ_L and Mr. E. G. Twohill, J.P.). ADDICTED TO DRINK. Aubrey Forest Donald had been remanded for medical attention last week, and now he appeared again. He had been charged with drunkenness. It was stated he was addicted to drink, including methylated spirits. This had bad effect on his nervous condition, which had already been upset by the war, and he was a source of annoyance to his family. He was asked whether he would consent to go to "the island," but asked for another chance first, and was again remanded pending an official report, which will be given next Monday, after further examination. TWO REMANDS. The hearing of a charge of theft against George Rees was remanded for a week. Accused was arrested on a charge that he received £3 16/ and did not account for it to his employers. Alfred Whitcombe, alias George Dean, was remanded till next Friday on two charges of theft. One, in Auckland, a suitcase and contents valued at £34 18/6, and the other at Frankton Junction, a suitcase and contents worth £20. FRAUD ALLEGED. Six charges of theft and fraud were made against Walter Chapman (Mr. Osburne-Lilly), an old man who had been in the employ of the Auckland Harbour Board. These counts all alleged attempts to defraud the board. They were: (1) In June last year he falsified a receipt for £2 2/4: (2) in May, 1918, Tie falsified a receipt for 16/9; (3) at Devonport between May, 1918, and March, 1922, he falsified receipts for £50 1/3; (4) at Devonport in May, 1918, received 5/ and did not account for it; (5) he received £1 3/6 and failed to account for it; and (6) between May. 1918, and March, 1922, received sums totalling £50 1/3 without accounting for them. The hearing of the charges was held over till April 7, bail of £200 being allowed. PURE PERSECUTION. Leonard Owen, who described his prosecution as "pure, unadulterated persecution" by the ranger, and demanded to know, why he was the only resident of Brown's Bay charged with having a wandering bn"e. «H hi. animal was a

tiet one and was merely in an unfenced section. He was lined 20/ with costs amounting to 58/. Fred Nicoll was ordered to pay 7/ costs for selling fruit in Pitt Street without a license. George Tucker, who was found on the racecourse at the Otahuhu Trots when he was forbidden to he there, said it was the first time he had been on a racecourse, as he had no interest in races. He was fined 20/ with 9/ costs. AN U_B£GIST£BED MAIS.

On a technical charge that he employed an unregistered barmaid, A. C. Harrison was fined 10/ and 7/ costs. His defence was that he had engaged the girl, who had been working in hotels about Auckland for several years, and she had told him she had lost her certificate. He had no reason to disbelieve her. The woman herself, named Sang (Mr. Hogg) was prosecuted and fined £5 with 9/ costs. It transpired that the police had found great difficulty in tracing her, ac she had made a sworn affidavit before a Justice of the Peace that her name was Ida Caroline Duske. It was finally found that the woman whose name she had taken had been a barmaid in Wellington, but was now retired from the profession. The accused was given a very good character, and it was said that her husband had deserted her, leaving her to support a daughter. She had never been registered. FOURTEEN DATS FOR 30/.

Alfred Donald Fletcher (Mr. Gatenby) was accused that at Palmerston North, while, under probation, he obtained by false pretences the sum of 30/. It was shown that he was an advertising man, and had no money to give his wife, so he represented that he had received an advertising order and thus got the money. He had not received the order, and counsel suggested that he .had merely been "hard up," and was a little" premature. Though a wire had been received from the informant offering to withdraw the charge, and the Probation Officer at Napier had offered to give him another chance, the Magistrate took a stern view of his breach of probation conditions, saying that instead of showing gratitude many people simply "went at it" again. Fletcher had been in prison for seven days, and was given seven days more as a warning to him.

BY-liAWS. Under the building by-laws, George B. Wannan was arraigned for having altered a building without a permit, and for using materials that did not comply with the by-laws. On his 'behalf Mr. Gould said the Municipal Inspector had suggested partial demolition of a house and alteration of the rest of it, and defendant took this to be as good as a permit. Fined 20/ on each of two charges and cost? totalling 2S/. The Inspector of Factories proceeded against Mrs. R. Cruller for failing to close her shop on the statutory halfholiday, and she was ordered to pay costs.

H. Warder had a gun sent out to him from England, and did not register it within a month. He was fined 10/ with 9/ costs.

For failing to register as an alien Wong Moon was fined 10/. Under the traffic regulations Robert C. Ferguson, a taxi-owner whose mother had engaged an unlicensed driver during his absence, was ordered to pay costs. A. W. Jones, another owner whose driver had told him he was licensed when he was not, was fined 20/. J. Hymen was fined €3 and costs for taking the Queen-Victoria Street corner at a speed greater than a walking pace. B. Robinson, Thomas Trevarthen, and Oliver Way were each fined 40/ and costs for driving taxis without licenses.

John Winter, licensee of the Waverley Hotel (Mr. Stevens), was fined 20/ with costs amounting to £3 15/ for permitting intoxication on his premises. The case arose as a sequel to a previous prosecution. MISCEIXANEOtrS.

Two inebriates were convicted and discharged for a first offence. Geo. Harri-son-(oS) was remanded for a week pend-, in" medical examination, after having been found drunk a second time within six months.

A lad of sixteen was summoned for •breaking a window at the Foresters' Hall. Takapuna, and frightening a meeting in.idt\ He .aid he had thrown the stone to put it on tlie roof, and it went through the window. He was admonished and ordered to pay the damage.

Donald Anthony Tomlinson, arrested on the allegation that at Ngaruawahia he stole £3 in cash from John Kennedy, -»•** rAflianded to sjjasir at 2?garua> wahia on Tue«day nest.