ALL OVER A SMOKE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 174, 11 April 1923, Page 3

ALL OVER A SMOKE

DRINKING BOUT LEADS TO • TROUBLE. Resenting a Chinese shop assistant’s refusal to supply a free cigarette, William. Darcy so behaved .himself that he was obliged to step into tho dock in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to answer charges of insobriety, wilful damage, and assault. According to Senior-Sergeant Lander, the accused, who pleaded guilty, mado his appearance from the Wairarapa some days ago and embarked on a drinking bout which soon depleted his resources. Nothing daunted, he entered Kong Ting Chong’s fruit shop and asked the youth behind the counter for a smoke. The lad replied that he was not “the boss,” and the man walked away. He returned, however, with a bottle in his possession, and tho startled assistant became more uneasy when the missile went crashing into a clock on the wall nearby. “He aimed it at the boy, but fortunately it missed him,” added Sergeant Lander. The accused stated that he had work to go to. “I don’t want to send him to gaol if he has work,” observed the Magistrate (Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.). A conviction was recorded in each case and the accused fined 155., with costs amounting to £1 15s. 6d.