MAGISTRATE’S COURT Man Sold “Hippie” Pills To Youths At Dance

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32053, 30 July 1969, Page 7

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Man Sold “Hippie” Pills To Youths At Dance

A young min who sold “hippie” pills to youths at a dance was convicted and fined a total of $l2O when he appeared before Mr P. L. Molineaux, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The defendant, Denis John Fife, aged 22, an unemployed ship's steward, pleaded guilty to charges of selling a poison on July 19 when not licensed to do so, and having a prescription poison in his possession on July 28 when not authorised to have it The prosecution was brought under the Poisons Act.

The Magistrate prohibited the publication of the name of the poison. He said he made the order so that other persons would be unable to ascertain the nature of the use to which the drug could be put

Detective Sergeant B. J. Preston said information was received by the police vice squad that a man had offered what he described as "hippie” pills for sale at a city dance hall.

When interviewed on July 28 the defendant said a man sold him 50 black capsules which he described as “black bombers” in a Wellington hotel bar on July 16. He paid $lO for them. The defendant told the police that he sold about five

lots of four capsules to ' youths whom he did not know at a teen-agers’ dance on July 19. He charged about $1 for each lot of capsules. “He said that he was aware of the dangers of the capsules and for this reason he had warned the youths not to take them all at once.” The defendant’s room was searched and two of the capsules of the prescription poison were found. He said these were the only capsules he had left, having given the balance away or used them himself. “He said that when he used them himself they made him feel good,” said Detective Sergeant Preston. YOUTHS FINED 9150 Four youths who were involved in a series of incidents while driving from Christchurch to Greymouth on Sunday, April 6. were fined a total of $l5O and were ordered to pay Court | costs of $4O after they had I pleaded guilty to eight charges. I John Richard Claydon, aged 20. unemployed, was fined $3O ■on a charge of behaving in an offensive manner on the Main North Road north of Amberley; $lO for behaving in a disorderly manner at Hurunui and $lO for drinking liquor in a public place when a minor. Leonard Douglas Phillips, aged 18, a workman, was fined $3O for behaving in an offensive manner on the Main North Road and $lO for drinking in a public place when a minor. Graham Bruce McKenzie, aged 18. a workman, was fined $3O on a charge of wilfully damaging a carriage lamp to the value of $lO, the property of R. J. Bryson and was ordered to make restitution af $lO and $l5 for consuming liquor in a public place when a minor. Trevor Noel McKenzie, aged 17, unemployed, was fined $l5 on a charge of drinking liquor in a Eublic place when a minor and eonard Douglas Phillips, aged 18. a workman, was fined $3O tor behaving in an offensive manner on the Main North Road north of Amberley and $lO for drinking liquor when a minor. Detective Sergeant Preston said that three of the defen dants were passengers in the car driven from Christchurch to Greymouth by Trevor McKenzie. While the car was being driven along the road north of Amberley a motorist saw Claydon urinating out of one of the back passenger’s doors. When seen by the police Claydon said that he had asked the driver to stop but he had refused to do so.

After seeing Claydon urinating out of the car Phillips decided to do the same, Detective Sergeant Preston said. Tne car stopped outside the Hurunui Hotel and the occuCants milled about outside the otel. Claydon picked up a stone from the road and threw it on to the roof of the hotel. The wife of the licensee was the only person in the hotel at the time. Claydon said that he had just done it on the spur of the moment.

After the youths had left the area it was found that one of the three ornamental carriage lamps fitted to the front wall of the hotel had been damaged. Graham McKenzie told the police that he had knocked on the doors of the hotel but there was no answer. He had then given one of the lamps a twist, as tie thought it might have been a bell. He denied damaging the lamp but offered to pay for the damage to it if the charge was dropped. About 5.5 p.m. a traffic officer of the Ministry of Transport stopped the car on CulverdenHanmer Springs Highway at Mouse Point. While he was questioning the occupants of the car he discovered that they had been drinking, said Detective Sergeant Preston. The Magistrate said that the defendants had acted like hooligans and he refused an application by Claydon for the suppression of his name. CONVICTED AND DISCHARGED Norman William Cole, aged 47. a hospital inmate, was convicted and discharged on a charge of stealing a steam iron valued at $l5, the property of Mildred June Young. He was ordered to make restitution ot $l5. Detective Sergeant Preston said that Cole had stolen the iron while visiting a residence in Fitzgerald Avenue. He sold it to a second-hand dealer for $4 to obtain money for liquor. The dealer had sold the iron. Cole was at present in Sunnyside Hospital under the Alcoholics and Drug Addiction Act, 1968.

I TRAFFIC OFFENCES In police traffic prosecutions convictions were entered and fines imposed as follows with costs of $5 in each case:— Careless use of motor vehicle: Anthony John Van Rooyen, $2O. Failed to give way: N. A. Blackler, $2O and licence cancelled for one month. LIQUOR OFFENCE Minor found in bar: Naui Hemopo, aged 19, $lO. TRAFFIC OFFENCES (Before Mr W. F. Brown, S.M.) Drove at dangerous speed: R. C. Jones, $lO, licence cancelled for one year (witness expenses $5.25).

Failed to stop at sign: S. Z. V. Hart, $l5. (Before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M.) MOTEL LICENSING* FEE A “phenomenal increase” from $2O to $650 in a motel licensing fee, imposed in 1966 by the Mount Cook National Park Board, was attacked by Mount Cook Motels, Ltd (Mr B. A. Barrer), as being unreasonable, in a case in which the park board sought from the company $630 as the balance of the 1966 fee owing. In legal submissions—adjourned part-heard until Friday —Mr Barrer said that the park board, in imposing the “phenomenal increase” of $630 in the licensing fee, was acting beyond the power contemplated by the National Parks Act, 1952. It was clearly introducing a rev-enue-raising item of an amount exceeding by far those amounts which had already been held high enough—in a string of New Zealand law cases—to invalidate licence fees. The board's action, submitted Mr Barrer, had been quite unreasonable.

For the park board, Mr N. W. Williamson distinguished the case from those cited by Mr Barrer by saying that it involved the licence fee of an owner of land—in this case, the Crown.

The National Parks Act, submitted Mr Williamson, clearly contemplated the park board should have revenue apart from Parliamentary subsidies. The board’s action, in the particular circumstances, in setting a 1966 fee of $650 could not be described as so unreasonable that' no board, in similar circumstances, could arrived at it, Mr Williamson said.