A MAN'S WORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 12, 15 January 1926, Page 6

A MAN'S WORD.

Dγ court o* , law, as good as a policeman's. ''It's not a bit of good mc putting up a defence, because you'll take the policeman's word before mine!" John Jack Ellis, a young man. made the statement in the Police Court this morning, when asked if he liad any questions to put to a constable vrho had given evidence against him, on a charge of using obscene language in a billiard saloon. "The sooner you get that notion out of your mind, the better," retorted Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., in stern tones. "That's not vrhat you think, but what someone else has told you. It's a wrong idea altogether. "If fifty policemen came into this Court and gave evidence, your word would be as good as theirs," continued the magistrate. "That notion makes you defiant and disrespectful of the law. Be he policeman, priest, parson or sailor, a man's word is taken for what it is worth. You are liable for contempt or Court for that remark. We could lock you up for a week." Ellis, who looked quite surprised, elected to give evidence, and got into the box to state that he ''let the word go in anger" during the course of a game in the billiard saloon. ''He admits i«—to his credit. He hasn't told lies about it," observed his Worship. Senior Sergeant Edwards said the prosecution had been brought in the nature of a test case, in order to find whether or not a billiard saloon came within the definition of "a public place."