DAMAGED POLE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 206, 28 May 1938, Page 15

DAMAGED POLE

Man Who Thought He Was Doing Good Fined

A fine of £2, with costs 10/-, was imposed on Colin Leslie Coleman, Fetonc, by Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., at the Magistrates’ Court, Upper Hutt, yesterday, on a charge of wilfully damaging a telephone pole at Silverstream. He was also ordered to make good the cost of resetting the pole. Constable F. J. Williams, prosecuting, said- that it had been noticed that the telephone wires at Pinehaven were almost touching the bare 400-volt power line. This was caused through a pole on Coleman’s property leaning over. It was found that Coleman had chipped the bottom of the pole. Coleman's excuse was that the pole was rotten and he thought that to chip it would preserve it. Later he had found it leaning over and had propped it up. The wind had caused the pole to veer in the direction of close contact with the high-tension wire. Jack Blackburn, overseer, Post and Telegraph Department, said it was admitted the pole was in bad order; it had seen a lot of service. The bottom had been cut off and the pole placed back, in the ground at. a cost, of 15/- for resetting the pole and, with insulation. £2/10/-. Constable C. zArnst said the pole had still been in a bad state at the bottom even after the chipping by Coleman. . Coleman said the department had misconstrued his action. There was nothing malicious in what he did. The pole was on his section at Pinehaven. The magistrate: Who gave you any authority to interfere it at all? Anyone who does that is liable to a fine of £2O. Coleman said he had no authority. Tile magistrate said he could not allow the matter to go by without a fine of some sort.