RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3732, 2 July 1883, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Tins Day

(Before Captain Preece, R.M.) DRUNKENNESS. Thomas Long, charged with being drank at Napier on Saturday, pleaded guilty. This being by no means the first occasion on which the prisoner lias appjeared before the Court on a similar charge, ho was fined 10s and costs, with the usual alternative in default of payment. LUNACY. Hugh McShane, on remand, charged with lunacy, was committed to the Lunatic Asylum. riding round corners. H. A. Banner was charged with having' on tho 23rd ultimo ridden a horse otherwise than at a walking pace around the corner of Emerson and Hastings streets. '^^^m^k Air Cornford appeared for tho and entered a pba of not guilty. Constable Dalton said that, on the in question, he saw the defendant horse very fast around tho Dickens, Emerson, and Tennyson He called out to Mr Banner, who, rode off, still going at a high rate of without taking any notice of witncssjH_B Witness saw no person in actual danger,■■■ although there Avere people on the street atvH the time. wfl Matthew Goodyear deposed that he saw aj the defendant riding around tho corner of «J Tennyson street at a rate of speed equal to 1 about eight miles an hour. He saw tho " constable speak to the defendant, hut observed nothing more subsequently. Mr Cornford said he had pleaded not guilty in order that the whole cheumstanccs of the case might he brought out. Ho now proposed to place Mr Banner in the box, and let the Court hear his version the affair. H. A. Banner, being sworn, said that on the 23rd ultimo a lady was riding tho horse in question, and it jibbed with her at Messrs Ruddock and Fryer's comer. The lady then took the horse further along the street with the object of turning round by Mr Blythc's, but when she got it there it refused io go at all. Witness, feeling that tho animal would be spoiled by letting it have its own way, asked tho lady to dismount, and having put another saddle oil it witness himself mounted and rode the horse round tho comers. No greater force was used than was necessary to compel the animal to do its duty. Witness saw the constable on the footpath waving his hand, but did not Jiear him speak. He was too busily engaged with the horse to pay attention to anything else. The horse : was going at a trotting pace, not galloping. -••:,.. A fine of 6s and 9s costs, together with *■ expenses of one witness 6s, was'inflicted.

OPEN AIR FIREPLACES. Alfred Mitchell Otton was charged with a breach of the borough bye-laws in having on the 12th June lighted a fire in an improperly constructed fireplace in the yard attached to his dwelling. W. Black, inspector of nuisances, said on the 12th instant he saw smoke ascending from Air Otton's yard, and on entering the premises ho discovered a fire burning in a sort of fireplace constructed of brick, corrugated iron, and zinc, aud having an open top, across which two iron bars were placed for the purpose of supporting a boiler. The fireplace was imperfectly constructed, and there was nothing to prevent sparks blowing about tho yard. Constable Forster also gave evidence as to tho construction of the fire-place. Defendant said he believed the fire-place to be perfectly safe. It was sanctioned by his landlord, who did not apprehend any danger from it. His Worship said there was. nothing in tho bye-law to indicate what a properly constructed fire-place was. Tho Council should certainly give notice as to what they would consider safe. Under tho circumstances a fine of Is, and 7s costs, would be inflicted. DREACn OF SHIITING ACT. HenrvL. Anderson was charged with having,\m the 17th June, carried nine more passengers on the s.s. Maori t» Wairoa than his license permitted. Mr Cornford appeared for the defendant, and said that Mr Patten, tho Collector of Customs, had agreed, in the event_ of his (Mr Comfofd's) client pleading guilty, to ask that a merely nominal penalty Lc inflicted. It was, he said, a well known fact that masters of steamers to the Wairoa wore occasionally compelled through force of circumstances to take more passengers than was allowed. In this instance it could be shown that, after tho steamer's lines had been cast off, several mil ivo.s jumped on the vessel, and as sho was going out with an ebb tide it was impossible to put back, and tho Shipping Act did not empower the captain to throw passengers overboard. (Laughter). Air Patten said the present case was brought more as a warning than anything else, and to give masters of vessels to understand that in future they would be punished for any infraction of the ActSuch a courso was necessary for the safety of passengers. A fine of £1 and lis costs, also expenses of one witness 7s, was inflicted.

The Court then rose,