COLLIDED WITH TAXI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 8

COLLIDED WITH TAXI.

« WAS JUST BRAVADO."

INSURANCE SALESMAN FINED. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. Pleading guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated, and stated to have a previous conviction, Archibald MacDonald (27), an insurance salesman, was to-day fined £30 and had his license endorsed till 1942. He was also ordered to take out a prohibition order. The police stated that defendant, when travelling <|n the Whatawhata Road on the incorrect side, collided with a taxi and was slightly injured. Counsel described the case as a borderline one. Defendant was earning up to £20 a week, and could afford a heavy fine, but cancellation of his license would prevent his employment. A doctor who examined defendant said it was difficult to tell how much of his condition was due to a blow on the head and how much to alcohol. Mac Donald was also convicted and discharged on a charge of negligent driving.

MAORI DRIVER FINED £30. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) PUKEKOHE, this day. 'It was just bravado, I think," said Constable fl. J. Olsen, giving evidence in the Pukekohe Police Court this morning when a Maori, Hikaka Mackey, of Pukekawa, was charged with being in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor car at Mercer on September 25. Hikaka had told the constable that he had had twenty drinks. "But I don't think he could have held that many," said the constable.

Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., was on the Bench.

Constable Olsen said that on the afternoon of September 25, as a result of complaints from motorists, he went to the Great South Road, south of Mercer, and found accused in a state of intoxication. Motorists had said that he was zigzagging down the road and had narrowly missed one car, while another had crashed into the back of his car. The magistrate said that it appeared to be a bad case. Mackey was convicted and fined £30 and costs £3 3/. His license was cancelled and he was declared incapable of holding another for five years.