MAGISTRATES COURT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27112, 7 August 1953, Page 5

MAGISTRATES COURT

THURSDAY (Before Mr Rex C. Abernethy, S.M.) REMANDED On a charge of wounding Manatu Kaienua at Mount Somers on July 18 with intent to do grievous bodily harm, Winston Tere Bates, aged 21, a labourer (Mr B. McClelland), was further remanded to appear at the Magistrate’s Court at Ashburton on August 17. Application for the remand was made by Detective-Sergeant G. W. Alty. Bail was renewed on the same terms as previously.

PRISON TERM Arthur Clarence Hardey, aged 55, a labourer, pleaded guilty to being found drunk in Manchester street, on Wednesday, having been convicted of drunkenness three times previously in the last six months. He was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.

OBSCENE LANGUAGE Una Noeline Keltie, a housekeeper (Mr W. K. L. Dougall), was fined £2 on a charge of using obscene language in Byron street.

“When a man starts to knock his wife about in this way the first question that the Court has got to ask is whether it shall send him to gaol,’’ said the Magistrate when Roderick Alexander McKay, aged 42 years, a fishmonger (Mr D. H. Godfrey), was charged with assaulting Helen Catherine McKay at Christchurch on July 30. McKay was fined £3. Sub-Inspector J. C. Fletcher said that McKay had come home under the influence of liquor and in a bad temper. He had had more drinks than were good for him, and after midnight he became violent and struck his wife in the mouth so that she had had to have her lip stitched. She was now diffident about having her husband prosecuted. ON LICENSED PREMISES For being found on licensed premises In the New Zealander Hotel after hours on May 15, Charles Henry Franks was fined £l.

CAR DEALER FINED John Ross Jacobson, a car dealer, was fined £2 on a charge of failing to notify the change of ownership of a motor-car.

THEFT OF BAG A woman, aged 20, was convicted and admitted to probation for two years on a charge of stealing a handbag and its contents, valued at £6 10s. Her name was ordered to be suppressed; Detective-Sergeant G. W. Alty said that a number of complaints about theft had been received at a dance hall, and on the night in question the wife of the person in charge of the dance had gone to a position from which she could keep the cloakroom in view. She had observed the accused go to the room, sit on a form, and feel under the coats. She had first produced a small blue purse, which she opened and closed and then put back again. She had then pulled out a black handbag and had gone to the lavatory with it. The woman who had been watching had gone to the room and opened the lavatory door, finding the accused with the bag open. When the accused had been seen by the police she had admitted taking the bag, but had said that she thought it belonged to a girl friend who had told her to go to the bag when she (accused) had said that she was feeling unwell, said Detective Sergeant Alty. THEFT OF NEWSPAPER A man who was charged with stealing one copy of “The Press,” valued at 3d, was convicted and ordered to pay £1 15s costs and £4 16s witnesses’ expenses. This was an "inexplicable mean theft for no good reason,” said the Magistrate, and he could not accept the explanation of the accused, who said that he thought the newspaper was outside the home of the mother of a Dutchman who had asked him to collect it.

The Magistrate at first imposed a fine of £2. but he remitted the fine when he was told of the high witnesses’ expenses. Seven vutnesses, including the accused, were called.

The Magistrate agreed to the suppression of the accused s name. The accused was represented by Mr W. F. Brown.

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE A man whose name was suppressed, for whom Mr D. I. N. Mac Lean appeared was convicted and ordered to come un for sentence within 12 months if called on when he appeared on a charge of attempting to commit suicide on July 29 He pleaded no# guilty to the charge.

CONSTABLE ASSAULTED Joseph William Groom, a rubbish attendant employed by the Waimairi County Council, was fined £2 on a charge of assaulting Joseph Thompson, a police constable, at Belfast on June 30, while the constable was on duty. Sub-Inspector J. C. Fletcher said Constable Thompson had called on Groom to deliver a default and summons, of which the accused would not take delivery Groom had threatened the constable with a pitchfork, an action which was regarded seriously.

For Groom, who pleaded guilty. Mr W. K. L. Dougall said that the summons was for an amount which Groom had alreadv made payment in full settlement. Both sides had become a little heated. z FALSE PRENTENCES A young married woman appeared on two charges of obtaining goods from a Christchurch shop by false pretences. She was remanded for a week for a report from the Probation Officer, and her name

suggested that the effect of slimming tablets she had been taking might have caused the woman’s lapse. Her past life had been exemplary. (Before Mr F. F. Reid, S.M.) PROBATION TERM

"Reports inform me that practically al] the offences you have committed are stupid ones, obviously committed when you are fuddled with drink,” said the Magistrate, sentencing Mathew James McArdle, aged 36. a clerk and cook (Mr W. G. P. Cuningham), who had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing an overnight bag, valued at £8 17s 6d, from Beath and Company, Ltd., Christchurch, on July

28. In the past, he had not been given the benefit of a period of probation, said the Magistrate, admitting McArdle to probation for two years.

INTERFERENCE WITH CAR In placing Hone Maihi, aged 20. a labourer, on probation for 12 months, the Magistrate warned him that any breach of probation would involve his committal to a Borstal institution. Maihi had pleaded guiltv to unlawfully interfering with a motor-car, the property of Daisy Patterson, at Christchurch, on July 31. CIVIL CASES (Before Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M.) CLAIM ADJOURNED Claims by the New Zealand Tramways Union (Mr A. K. Archer) against E. C. Achilles and Eric C. Leach for a union levy of £1 0s 6d each were adjourned sine die. The request by Mr Archer for an adjournment was disputed by the defendants. Mr Archer asked for an adjournment because documents had to be obtained from Wellington. He said the claim involved a levy carried by the majority of union members through a postal ballot. For the plaintiff it would be proved that the ballot was carried out according to the rules, but for this it was necessary to obtain documents from the New Zealand Union in Wellington. Leach said that the plaintiffs had much time to prepare their case. He and the other defendant had to rearrange their work for that day, and although they would not lose pay that day they might not be able to do the same thing again. They felt that as the secretary of the Christchurch branch of the union was in Court the matter could be settled. ORDER FOR POSSESSION John Albert Nicholas (Mr E. I. White) was granted an order for possession of a dwellinghouse at 25 Stephen street from William Matthews (Mr S. J. Mann, of the Department of Labour). Mr White said that the plaintiff and his wife, who had two young children, were seeking possession of a house they had bought jointly at 25 Stephen street. They were at present living with relations under unsatisfactory conditions. Mr Mann said that the defendant, too, had hardship. A doctor’s certificate stated that Matthews had to have his brother living with him to help him because of his nervous state of health. Matthews was on a social security benefit, and his condition has deteriorated over the last few months. The plaintiffs had offered him one room, but he would not contemplate that because he could not leave his brother. The Magistrate said there was no doubt the plaintiff’s necessity greatly exceeded the defendant’s. JUDGMENT SUMMONSES On judgment summonses, Mrs M. J. Golding was ordered to pay Hay’s, Ltd., £3l 15s 8d forthwith, in default 33 days’ imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended as long as she pays £8 a month; J. S. McDonald was ordered to pay G. L. Beer £4 19s, in default five days’ imprisonment: R. C. Cassidy was ordered to pa" N. F. Soper £8 8s 2d, in default nine days’ imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended as long as he pays £1 a week; D. E. Milne was ordered to pay G. G. Parry £39 18s 6d. forthwith, in default 41 days’ imprisonment, the warrant not to be issued until three days after service of the order; William M. Boyd was ordered to pay Ross Smith £7 13s, forthwith, in default eight days’ imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended as long as he pays 5s a week; Miriama Pitana Rewai 4d, fortnwnn. in cierauit rrvc*-<r«>o«-..n--prisonment; H. A. Cooper was ordered to pay A. E. Brightling £l9 5s 6d, forthwith, in default 21 days’ imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended as long as he pays £1 a month. (Before Mr Rex C. Abernethy, S.M.) ORDER FOR POSSESSION Jack Henry Mackenzie (Mr V. B. McClelland) claimed possession of a dwellinghouse from Walker Henry Baker (Mr E. M. Hay). An order for possession was granted, to be made within six weeks, sub-] ject to reasonable repairs being made to alternative accommodation that had been found. 1