Lounge Was ‘Dosshouse’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 3

Lounge Was ‘Dosshouse’

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Oct. 29. The Picasso Coffee Lounge in Auckland was vaguely in the character of a subterranean dosshouse, said Mr K. Ryan in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court today.

Mr Ryan was representing Jack Studholme Minhinnick, aged 23, a driver’s assistant, and Selwyn Dallas Minhinnick, aged 17, an unemployed workman.

The two brothers had pleaded guilty to separate charges of breaking and entering the Picasso Coffee Lounge in Cook street with intent to commit a crime.

The hearing was before Mr L. G, H. Sinclair, S.M. Detective-Sergeant J. Sheehan appeared for the police. The lounge employed young Maori boys, Mr Ryan said. When a certain amount of work had been got from them, they were dismissed. Selwyn Minhinnick was told to leave after working at the lounge for one week, Mr Ryan said. His elder brother,

who had also been working there, was annoyed.

The two brothers brooded over the matter and finally went to the lounge one night, armed with drink. The Magistrate said that although a charge of burglary was technically correct, a charge of “mischief” might have been more appropriate. “You have got to learn that you cannot take the law into your own hands,” he said.

He convicted both and sentenced Jack Minhinnick to one month in gaol. Selwyn Minhinnick was remanded to be examined with a view to a period of detention.