Magistrate’s Court COMMITTED FOR TRIAL ON BURGLARY CHARGE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30062, 21 February 1963, Page 7

Magistrate’s Court COMMITTED FOR TRIAL ON BURGLARY CHARGE

James Tuhikarama, alias James Rongo, aged 23, a carpenter, was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court on a charge of burglary on September 30 when depositions were taken before Messrs R. H. Harris and H. A. Harrow, Justices of the Peace, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Tuhikarama (Mr D. H. Stringer), pleaded not guilty after depositions were taken. Asking for bail, Mr Stringer said the accused had been remanded in custody since December 7. Senior-Sergeant G. M. Cleary opposed bail “on the ground of public interest.” Bail was refused Shirley Helen Donald, a housewife, of 129 Edgeware road, said she woke at 5 a.m. on September 30 to hear her husband asking someone in the room what he was doing there. Before the light was put on she saw a dark person, who could have been a Maori, in the room. She particularly noticed his walk, which was “like a lope.” The light was turned on and she found her purse with £3O in it was gone. Two days later, the witness said, she saw a man accompanied by a girl whom she presumed was his wife because she was pregnant. The man she saw had the same kind of walk as the man she saw in her bedroom had. Later she went with a detective to the Essex Maternity Hospital, where she identified the accused as the man who had been in her bedroom.

Frederick George Donald said he was wakened by someone in his bedroom and thought it was his son sleepwalking. He got a good silhouette view of the intruder. “His walk made me think of a professional cat burg-lar,”-said the witness. “He didn’t make a sound. A very dark person in dark clothing.” Detective-Constable D. K. White said the accused denied the burglary when interviewed. He said the accused said: “I’ve made mistakes in the past. You won’t catch me now. I’m too good for you.” (Before Mr H. Rosen, S.M.) SMUGGLED RADIO

Pleading guilty by letter to a charge of smuggling a transistor radio at Lyttelton on December 10, Awylyn Stanley Stone was convicted and fined £25.

For the Customs Department, Mr I. C. T. Polson said a Customs ainspector apprehended Stone coming off the coastal vessel River City. Stone said he had declared the radio ait Auckland, but a check revealed it was a different radio that had been declared. INDECENT LANGUAGE

Pleading guilty to a charge of using indecent language in Barbadoes street on February 19. Robert John Kirk, aged 50, a linotype operator, of Wellington, was convicted and fined £5.

Detective-Sergeant Crozier said the police were called to a domestic dispute at 272 Barbadoes street. A constable on the street could hear Kirk using the language complained of in the house. BUILDING PERMIT BREACH On a charge of breach of the provisions of a building permit, Henry Arthur Reginald Taylor, aged 47, a motor mechanic, was convicted and fined £5. He pleaded not guilty, and was represented by Mr B. A. Barrer. Mr G. R. Lascelles, who appeared for the Christchurch City Council, said that in June, 1950, Taylor applied for a building permit to extend a garage at his home in Cox street to house two cars and two motor-cycles. He said he had no business motives. The permit was granted, and Taylor was advised that it was for non-commercial use. Since then there had been an almost ceaseless procession of motor-vehieles to the garage for repairs, Mr Lascelles said. Many complaints had been received from neighbours. Mr Barrer submitted that the charge had not been proved by the evidence brought by the complainant The permit did not state categorically that the premises were not to be used for any other purpose than storing two cars and two motorWhen the council objected to the business being con-

ducted some two years ago Taylor saw that he did not employ any labour and worked in front of the garage. He did as much work as possible away from his home. WEEDS NOT CLEARED

The situation was one where a foreigner had inadvisedly bought at Banks Peninsula a very poor piece of land—“one which the local people would not touch with a barge pole”—said Mr J. A. Brotherton, appearing for Marinus van der Wouden, a veterinary surgeon, on a charge of failing to comply with the Noxious Weeds Act, after an order made in July. During the months since notice had been served on him the defendant had made only a half-hearted attempt to clear broom and gorse which had overgrown his property, said the Magistrate. Van der Wouden, who pleaded not guilty, was fined £7 10s. WANDERING CATTLE

On two charges of allowing cattle to wander, John Henry Buckley was fined £l. Keith Joseph Harrison, a ranger for the Christchurch City Council, said he found a bull owned by Buckley in the Memorial Park Cemetery and two cows in Ruru road on August 21. On August 28 three of Buckley’s cows were found loose in McGregors road.

Buckley pleaded guilty to one charge and not guilty to the other. He was fined £1 on one charge, and was ordered to pay'-costs on the other. REMANDED Charged with assaulting his de facto wife at Christchurch on February 19, John Merritt Harpur, aged 36, was remanded on bail to February 27. (Before Messrs P. A. Le Brun and S. F. Marshall, Justices of the Peace) WARRANT ISSUED

A warrant was issued for the arrest of Jack Joseph Stubbs when he failed to appear for the taking of depositions on a charge of theft between January 1 and December 21. Stubbs had elected trial by jury.