FIGHT IN STREET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 9

FIGHT IN STREET.

DALMATIANS BEFORE COURT. EACH BLAMES THE OTHER. Two Dalmatians, Charles Olucina (30) tnd Joseph Hrstich (30), appeared before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court this morning charged with fighting in Victoria Street and with using obscene language. Both pleaded not guilty. Constable Brown said that at 1.20 p.m on Monday last he saw the accused exchanging blows on the footpath in Victoria Street. Hrstich was bleeding from a cut over the eye and both were using obscene language. On four occasions after their arrest the men, who were perfectly sober, had attempted to start lighting again. To Mr. Schramm, who appeared for Hrstich, the constable said that Hrstich had told him that he had asked the other accused to keep away from his wife and that Glucina had struck the first blow.

Called by Mr. Haddow, who appeared for Glucina, an eye-witness said that Glucina was talking to two friends on the footpath when the other accused walked up and struck him. Glucina, in evidence, said that Hrstich used filthy language in the Dalmatian tongue about his family, and that he only defended himself. He denied that he had been to see the other accused's wife on numerous occasions.

Hrstich's version of the affair was that he had merely told Glucina to keep away from his wife and children, and that Glucina had struck him. "I told him in Dalmatian that he was a mongrel," he said.

In dismissing the charge of fighting against Glucina and fining Hrstich £1, the magistrate commented that Hrstich was separated from his wife, and, like so many other men, feJt that he had a grievance. For using obscene language both men were fined f 1 each.