PETONE COURT SITTING

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1917, Page 8

PETONE COURT SITTING

The monthly sitting of the Petone Magistrate's Court was held to-day, before Messrs. J. Piper, Edgar Jones, and J. M'MiUan, J.P.'s. Herbert Joseph Jenner, a railway workshops apprentice, was convicted of breaking his indentures, and was ordered to pay the costs, amounting to 295. H. Burtwas prosecuted for failing to attend Territorial parades. For the defence, defendant stated that he was over 25 years of age, and therefore exempt from parades! The Bench held that the defence was a valid one, 'and the case was dismissed. Leonard Elvines, for whom Mr. E. P. Bunny appeared, was charged with a similar offence. The defence in this case was that defendant wa6 a member, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, on leave, and not subject to civil law for the offence, and also that he was in his 25th year. The case was dismissed, the Bench being of opinion that both groundsof defence were good. R. A. Parrant, for whom Mr. Bunny also appeared, was similarly charged. The defence raised was that defendant being a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Reserve, did not consider he was liable to attend parade*. Defendant was convicted and discharged.

In the assault case, Christina Nightingale v. E. J. Fuller, which arose over a dispute about the treatment of plaintiff's child by defendant, the Bench considered that there had been "much ado about nothing." The case was dismissed, each party to pay its own coste. CIVIL CASES. In the following undefended civil cases, judgment by default was entered for plaintiffs :—Petono Borough Council v. E. G. de Ney, £13 18s 4d, with 28s costs ; George Leavey v. James Bryant, £1 11s (3s costs) ; same v. Charles Strong, £4 Is 6d (5s costs).