POLICE COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 20, 25 January 1927, Page 11

POLICE COURT.

(Before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M

A STOLEN OVERCOAT.

That he had obtained the overcoat of Wm. D. Rowe in exchange for two shirt« was the excuse offered by Joseph Henry Trask (47), when charged with stealing the garment, said to be worth £3. "Then why did Rowe go to the police about it?" queried Mr. Hunt. "Oil, I've known him for ten years, and wc came to New Zealand together from Australia," said Trask. "I suppose he went to the police because I would not do norne things which he suggested." The magistrate did not believe this tale, and he fined Trask £5, in default 14 fluya, making an order that the coat be returned to Rowe, who has gone back to Australia. TOO MANY "SPOTS." Christina Hughes (54), who broke her prohibition order yesterday, was fined £1 for being drunk and 10/ for procuring liquor.' Wm. Morris (39) was having an argument in Victoria Street yesterday, when lie put.his walking stick through a winddw. He was fined 10/ for being drunk, £1 for breaking the pane of glass, and ordered to pay 15/ in respect of the damage, being allowed seven days in which to find the money. Mary Ann Fowler (51) pleaded guilty to a charge of vagrancy. Mr. Adams Stated that Fowler had behaved herself while she was living with her husband at Birkdale, but as soon as she came into town she got into trouble. The magistrate convicted her, and ordered her to come up for sentence when called upon within six months. Fowler was advised to go back to her husband and keep off the drink. GAOL HIS ONLY HOME. "The police say you have no place to go to, and no one to look after you—is that right?" asked Mr. Hunt of Henry Joseph Williams (75), when that weltknown offender made his 77th appearance, this time on a charge of having been found by night on enclosed premises in Yelverton Terrace.

"No one," replied the old man. < "Ohi well, I suppose I'd better put him •way for a bit," said the magistrate. "Three months. It will be a home for him, anyway." "WHITE" FOR TWELVE MONTHS. "1 lost my head; 1 was drunk"—so •aid James McQuoid (55) charged with being drunk in Crummer Road, and with having committed a grossly indecent act in that thoroughfare on Saturday. A female witness stated that she saw accused leaning against a pest in a drunken condition. He committed the act with which he was charged. Senior Sergeant Edwards said the man had 47 previous convictions. He was last before the Court in December, 1925. "Oh, well, he's been white for twelve months, anyhow, unless he was in gaol," observed Mr. Hunt.

"Oh, no, I wasn't in gaol," McQuoid Was quick to say. A line of 40/ was imposed, with the alternative of seven days' imprisonment.. Fourteen days were allowed in which to P»y- _ "And you must take out a prohibition order," was the magistrate's parting injunction. THE "BUFFALOES" MONEY. Ernest Wright, who pleaded guilty yesterday morning to the theft of lodge money totalling £30 19/9, appeared for sentence late in the afternoon, having heeg stood down so that Mr. Hunt, S.M., might confer with the probation officer. Wright, who was secretary to Richmond Lodge 4428, New Zealand, No. 13, Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, and had misappropriated portion of the money entrusted to him, was admitted to pronation for two years. Restitution is to be made.