SWEARING ON PLANE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 3

SWEARING ON PLANE

PASSENGER FINED £2O (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, April 18. A charge of indecent language on an aircraft was heard before Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court today. The charge, believed to be the first in New Zealand, was preferred against Arthur John Delahunty, aged 31, a plasterer, of Wellington. Delahunty, who did not appear, pleaded guilty. Delahunty was also charged with obscene language in a bus. He was fined £lO on each charge, in default seven days’ imprisonment on each. Senior-Sergeant J. Devlin said that Delahunty was a passenger on a National Airways Corporation aircraft between Paraparaumu and Christchurch on January 17. He tried to engage in conversation with women sitting opposite him, produced a bottle of whisky from which he drank, and eventually became intoxicated. The hostess took a “lot of abuse” from him, but would not repeat it to the police. However, some of the language was written down for the Magistrate. On the Christchurch to Taieri flight Delahunty drank more whisky, and when he joined the Dunedin-bound bus at Taieri airport he threw a lighted cigarette on the carpet. The driver

corrected him and picked up the cigarette, whereupon Delahunty used more bad language. Most of it was directed at the driver, although some was intended for passengers. “If he was a single man and down here, I’d consider imposing a term of imprisonment,” said the Magistrate.