WATERSIDE GAMBLERS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 12, 8 October 1927, Page 12

WATERSIDE GAMBLERS

SURPRISE RAID ON WHARF TWENTY-THREE MEN ARRESTED Things being quiet on the waterfront yesterday afternoon, twenty,two men decided to follow their fancies, and play at. hazards and penny poker. They appointed a man to keep watch at the Thorndon breastwork, and a large box was used as a table, forms being placed round it. Fourteen men played hazards, while some eight others indulged in penny poker. Suddenly, and without any warning, Detective Tricklebank and several constables surrounded-the players and arrested them. The lorft-out man made for safety, but was soon overtaken by the police in a motor-car, and, together with his colleagues, he was taken to the police station, and thence to the Magistrate’s Court, where Mr. J. H. Salmon. S.M., held a late sitting especially for them. They all pleaded guilty to the charges preferred against them. One of the men put forward the plea that thev were only playing penny poker, and said that he hoped the case would not’ be regarded as serious.

Observing that the stakes played for did not in any wav affect the charge, as it was an offence to play for anv stakes in a public place, Mr. Salmon convicted the whole twenty-three and fined each of them £2, in default seven days’ imprisonment. The names of the accused are as follow:—Claud Elicha Miles, Alexander Rahnik, John Robert Jones, Joseph Carter, Victor Davis, William Hewitt, Joseph Barham, Percy Braithwaite, Angus Paterson Macleod, Henry Burroughs, William Gordon Brown, Niels " Sorensen, Joseph Huggan, Janies William Paulger, Alexander Berg, Charles Truesdale, William Joseph Carter, John Bogue, Sigurd Larsen, Walter Lawson, John Knott. Henry John Heffron, Joseph loapa. Accused were given seven davs in which to find the money.