LOVER OF ANIMALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 9

LOVER OF ANIMALS.

CAT CAUSES CAR CAPSIZE.

SWERVED TO AVOID ANIMAL,

That he was not intoxicated and that his car capsized because he was a lover of animals and swerved sharply to avoid a cat, was the defence put forward by Arthur Forbes Milne (32), a soldier from Papakura Military Camp, who pleaded not guilty to a charge of being in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor car in New North Road on December Iβ.

Mr. K. E. Aekins appeared for Milne, who was in uniform.

After hearing the evidence, Mr. Orr Walker dismissed the charge. He eaid that judging by defendant's demeanour in the witness box this morning, it was quite possible that a doctor who examined Milne shortly after the accident, and the constable who arrested him, were led into the belief that he was intoxicated because they could smell liquor on him. It must be remembered that Milne had been badly ehakcn and suffered a serious hand injury when his car capsized. Another doctor who examined Milne on his admission to hospital two and a quarter hours after the accident considered that Milne showed no signs of intoxication. There was a doubt about the matter and Milne was entitled to the benefit of it. The charge was dismissed.