'PROPHET'S' LAPSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 November 1931, Page 9

'PROPHET'S' LAPSE.

RATANA FINED £50.

INTOXICATED IN CAR.

CONVIVIAL GATHERING,

FRIENDS FROM TAIHAFE.

(By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.")

WANGANUI, this day,

Talm Wiremu Ratana, the Maori ''prophet," was fined £«">0 this morning, and his driving license was cancelled for three years, for being in a state of intoxication when in charge of a motor car. Ratana pleaded guilty.

Senior Sergeant said that Con stables Roache and Smith saw Ratana emerging from a hotel at 6 o'clock, and they noticed he had had liquor. They watched him enter the car and start the engine, but they prevented him from driving. Ratana explained to the senior sergeant that he had met a number of Maoris from Taihape, and they made a great fuss of him, and he had several shandies.

Mr. Salmon, S.M., said the case presented exactly the same features as a recent one. But for the fact that accused did not actually drive the car, having been prevented from doing so by the vigilance of the police, he would have been committed to prison, as it was his second offence-

Ratana took out a prohibition ord»r, His previous offence was four years ago, and after his conviction his followers were forbidden to trade in Wanganui, greatly to the consternation of local business people. The ban lasted about a year, and was then lifted.