MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1918, Page 8

MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M.; occupied the Bench at the Magistrate's Court to-day. Ten first-offending inebriates were dealt with in the usual manner.

A Finnish seaman named Harry Anderson, wife charged with drunkenness, with having used obscene language, and, being an alien, with having landed without a permit. -Anderson was found drunk on the wharf at 7.35 p.m.:on Saturday, and •when taken into custody made use of very objectionable language. He was convicted and discharged on two charges, and was ordered to £ay a fine of £2, in default seven days in. gaol, for having used obscene language

Benjamin Smith was fined £1 for having behaved, in a threatening manner in a public place.

'Arthur Oldha^n was sent to gaol for a month for having'trespassed on his wife's premises during the currency of a separation order, and was convicted and discharged for drunkenness and breaking his prohibition order. His wife gave evidence that the accused went to her 'home last evening in a drunken state, and almost throttled her, and threatened to take the life of her brother when ha entered the room. The police were called*) in and the man arrested.

A middle-aged woman named Mary Carr stated, in answer to a charge of having fraudulently placed a defaced postage stamp upon a letter, that she was shortsighted, and mistook the stamp, a dark blue 2jd, for the old slate grey lgd stamp. No additional gum was used. After examining the letter and hearing the explanation, the Magistrate agreed that it was probably an innocent mistake, and therefore dismissed the information.

' Formal evidence was taken regarding a charge against Isabella Mignonette Campbell, who, it is alleged, went through a form of marriage with Arthur Stevens when she was already married to Percival . William Campbell. Accused, who pleaded guilty, said that he"r only reason for contracting the bigamous marriage was that she wished to obtain a divorce from her husband, as she had been bady treated by him. On the night before the second marriage she had been drinking with Stevens, and the marriage was then arranged. Accused was committed for sentence at the Supreme Court, bail being fixed in the stun of £25, conditionally on her remaining in the Salvation Army Home.

A brief sitting of the Court was presided over by Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., this afternoon. Three first offenders were each fined 10s for drunkenness, and Patrick Doran and Francis Joseph Donnelly —'who had each been previously > convicted three times with the ;past six months—were each fined 10s, in default 48 hours in the cells, and were prohibited. John Thorpe was fined 10s, in default 48 hours in gaol, and ordered to pay 5s witness' expenses, for creating a breach of the peace in Tory-street. .

.Six inebriates came before Mr. R. D: Hanlon, J.P., at the Mount Cook Police Station' this morning. Two "Sunday drunks," both first offenders, were each fined 20s with the alternative of fortyeight hours imprisonment. Another, a soldier, was handed over to the military authorities. Ernest Maney, a second offender, was fined 40s,- with the option of going to gaol for seven days, and John Robinson, who had been in the cells since Saturday, was convicted and discharged. A first offender who did not appear was fined the amount of his bail (1O»). ■■- ■