FALSE FIRE-ALARMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1934, Page 2

FALSE FIRE-ALARMS

AUCKLAND MAN FINED [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, May 14. “There is no knowing what an otherwise respectable man will do when he has had a. few drinks,” said Magistrate Hunt, to-day, when he fined Robert Angus Cowley, 45, engineer, £25, or one month’s imprisonment for wilfully giving a false fire alarm on Saturday night. Accused denied the offence. Evidence was given by a man who saw another man push in the glass of a fire alarm box. He was positive it was Cowley. Witness said lie took notice of the man’s action because he had a brother in the fire brigade, and often heard him speak of the difficulty of catching people who gave false alarms. The foreman of the brigade said that four malicious false alarms were received between 6.29 and 6.53 on Saturday. and in the last twelve months, there had been 85. Each time, the engine turned out it cost nearly £5. Accused, in evidence, flatly denied that he gave the false alarm, but the Magistrate said the evidence on the point, was positive. Counsel said that his client was a man with three children, employed by the Tramway Department since 1918, and was most respectable.