MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26127, 1 June 1950, Page 3

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

WEDNESDAY (Before Mr F. F. Reid, S.M.) INTOXICATED DRIVER Cecil Joseph Fantham (Mr W. F. Brown), aged 36, licensee of the Phoenix Hotel, pleaded guilty to a charge of being found in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor-car on Papanui road on May 27. Senior-Sergeant J. J. Kearns said the accused was seen by Inspector E. J. McJarrow at 7.20 p.m. on May 27 travelling north along Papanui road, and following an erratic course. The accused was arrested and taken to the police station where he was examined and medically certified as unfit to drive. Mr Brown said the accused was on a very spare diet, and was in a weak physical condition. He had too much liquor for the amount of food he had eaten. In asking for leniency Mr Brown said that the publicity involved would have some effect on accused’s employment as a licensee. He was a first offender. The Magistrate said whatever liquor Fantham took, it was a voluntary action on his part. The fact that he was not in the best of health should have been a reason for his taking more care. Accused was convicted and fined £lO and was prohibited from holding a driver’s licence for 12 months. CHARGE DISMISSED

A charge against Olga Zelas (Mr A. C. Perry), trading as Olga Miles Delicatessen, of employing a woman in a factory between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., contrary to the provisions of the Factories Act, 1946, was dismissed. Mr R. J. Weir, who appeared for the Inspector of Factories, said the defendant was the occupier of a bakehouse in Cashel street and had employed a woman in the factory in the early hours of the morning, contrary to the provisions of the act. Tiie defendant had been previously warned for a similar offence on two occasions.

Wilfred Charles Mayson, a factory inspector, said he entered the factory about 7.05 a.m. on February 24, and found one female worker engaged in making pastry. The woman had told him that she had to come to work before 8 a.m. as that was the only time she could get someone to look after her two children.

The woman said that the accused had told her not to commence work before 8 a.m., said the witness to Mr Perry.

The defendant said she had forbidden her female staff to start work before 8 a.m. She had arrived at the factory about 8.30 o’clock on the morning of February 24. The woman concerned had been working in the early morning without her authority or knowledge. Mr Perry submitted that a section of the act safeguarded an employer if a worker was in the factory without the knowledge, authority, or connivance of the employer. The evidence of the prosecution showed that the woman was there without the authority of the defendant, said the Magistrate, in dismissing the charge. FISHING WITHOUT LICENCE Harold Edmond Ensor, a farmer, of Rangiora, and Phillip Boyes, a farm labourer, of Rangiora, were each fined 30s on charges of fishing for salmon without a licence. The charges were Drought by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society for whom Mr B. McClelland appeared. George Alexander Cunningham Friend, a ranger employed by the society, said he saw the two men fishing at the mouth of the Hurunui river while he was on patrol on March 5. Both admitted that they did not hold licences.

Both accused had subsequently written in to the society saying that they had been holders of licences for a number of years, but had not renewed them so far this season. Both bought licences the next day. UNLICENSED RADIOS On a charge of operating an unlicensed radio, William George Donnithorne was convicted and fined £3. On a similar charge, Leonard Joseph Morgan was convicted and fined 15s. TRAFFIC OFFENCES The following persons were convicted and ordered to pay costs on charges of parking in the street at night without lights, brought by the traffic department of the Christchurch City Council:— Vernon Albert Bendall, Godfrey Peter de Latour, Geoffrey Gordon Ditfort, Norman Frederick Ellis, Desmond William Frame, Thomas Henry Gardner, Edwin Peter Geddins, George Gervaise Graham, Arthur Griffiths Hembrow, Matthew Alex Johnston, Alfred John Jones, George Kirkpatrick, John Linton, Percy Major, Roy Beveridge Mclntosh, Lawrence Edward 'McKenzie (no warrant of fitness, 10s), James McNab, Frank O’Brien, Owen Roy Seiwood, Robert Lindsay Taylor, Andrew Wilson, Bernard David Winfield.