LEGAL LANGUAGE
DEFENDANT'S DIFFICULTY PUZZLING FORMA LIT LES The puzzling formalities "of legal English were cut short for a middleaged Maori defendant in the Te Aroha Court recently in a way quite to everyone's liking. The constable taking the prosecution for the case (which concerned a breach of prohibition) was proceeding on the well-worn formula and defendant looked more and more puzzled about where he should make his response. Looking over and realising his predicament the Magistrate interposed: "You went into the pub and had a drink, hey?" "Yeah!" responded the defendant in a relieved tone. "Drink much?" "Sometimes." "You know it's wrong?" A nod. "When were you up last?" "Three years " Shuffling his papers His Worship gave an approving nod and a muttered "Not so bad." when he made the necessary checking up. x The defendant left quite cheerfully to pay his fine, for after all the Magistrate had talked to him in understandable terms!
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19440620.2.6
Bibliographic details
Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 83, 20 June 1944, Page 2
Word Count
156LEGAL LANGUAGE Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 83, 20 June 1944, Page 2
Using This Item
Beacon Printing and Publishing Company is the copyright owner for the Bay of Plenty Beacon. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Beacon Printing and Publishing Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.