EVIDENCE CONFLICTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1934, Page 22

EVIDENCE CONFLICTS

ARGUMENT IN STREET'

CHARGES DISMISSED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CimiSTCIIUKCH, May 11.

A charge of using insulting words in a; public place \vas brought, against Henry Thomas Joynt Thac-ker, medical practitioner, in the Magistrate's Court today. Dr. Thacker's chauffeur, Clarence Campbell Falconer, was charged with negligently'driving ;, (•;,.-. Both charges, were dismissed.

Sub-Inspector Powell said that on April 10 ■ Leonard Armstrong was cycling in' Durham Street, on the correct, side, opposite Dr. Thacker's'property. ■ Dr. Thacker's c.-ir -was driven ,in ; front, of him1 and stopped, so that Armstrong had to lido into .the gutter and fall off to avoid riding into the car. Armstrong asked the chauffeur for an explanation, but Dr. Thacker replied that he had a right to pull in, as ho. lived there. Dr. Thacker also' told lArmstrong to, "Get out of the damned road," and called him a "damned useless cur," and, turning to the chauffeur, told him "to squeeze the neck of that man.''

'Dr. Thaekcr and Falconer, and also Mrs. Thacker, denied that Dr. Thacker had.used the words, and all declared that Armstrong had used provocative language, calling J)r. Thnekor the "biggest dud in 'New Zealand" and "a big bluff." • •

The Magistrate said that the evidence on either side was an absolute contradiction, and he was unable to say which., was the ..truth.