MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1942, Page 2

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

TO-DAY’S GREYMOUTH CASES

A sitting of the Magistrate’s Court was held at Greymouth this morning, before Mr G. G. Chisholm, S.M. Senior-Sergeant G. F. Bonisch represented the police. Six statutory first offenders found on licensed premises after hours were each convicted and fined 5/-, with 10/- costs. Clive Malcolm Mathieson, licensee of the Railway Hotel, Ngahere, was charged with selling liquor after hours on June 14. John Orr was charged that being a person other than the licensee he did supply liquor after hours on June 14. Mr J. W. Hannan, for the licensee, pleaded guilty. The Senior Sergeant stated that at 2.55 p.m. on Sunday, June 14, Constable Honey visited the hotel, and found the front door, a door into the bar, a slide between the bar and the passage, and a slide between the bar and a back parlour all open. There were a number of men in the back parlour, and also some in the bar. The hotel had the appearance of a week day. All the men in the bar had been supplied with liquor. Defendant Orr admitted'supplying, the men. The licensee was absent from the hotel on a full-day parade with the Home Guard, and Orr was in charge of the hotel in his absence. Nothing was previously known against either defendant. Mr Hannan said that the facts were as stated by the Senior-Sergeant, but Orr was not formally in charge of the hotel. He was not a regular barman, and normally did not have access to the bar. The Senior-Sergeant said that Orr was a returned soldier from the present war, and had made the hotel his home. Orr was convicted and fined £2, with 12/- costs, and Mathieson was convicted and fined £l, with 12/costs, and 10/- witness’s expenses. Francis Edward Lockington, Manager of the Wallsend mine, proceeded against Eric Hales and Frederick Fletcher, both being charged with storing explosive underground in the Wallsend mine on July 6, instead ol bringing it to the surface for storage in a proper place. The Manager stated that three ano a-half pounds of explosive was found hidden in the place in which the two defendants worked. Fletcher took the blame, saying that he had planted it there on the' Thursday night before the Sunday on which it was found. The explosive was buried in slack, and Fletcher said that Hales had. had nothing to do with it. The trouble was, said tne Manager, in addition to the danger, that the company supplied the powder when the men were below the minimum in any week, and the storing of powder enabled the men to use it when they had a good week, and should be paying for it. Each defendant was convicted and fined £5, with 10/- costs. Franklin John Maurier, 27, commercial traveller, of Wanganui, represented by Mr W. D. Taylor, was charged with failing to make application for enrolment in Class A ol the Reserve.

The Senior-Sergeant stated that accused had been arrested only this morning, and the files had not come to hand. He asked for an adjournment for seven days. Mr Taylor did not oppose the remand, but asked for bail. He said that acused was a traveller On his own account, and bail would be forthcoming. Accused was remanded to appear on July 2, bail being allowed in the sum of £5O. PROCURING A FIREARM.

Edward John Case, of Kumara, was charged that on or about May 15, 1942, at Kumara, he did procure a firearm, a Martini Henri single shot rifle, without a permit. Reginald Douglas Stuart, of Kumara, was charged with delivering possession of the firearm, without a permit. Corporal J. H. Ferguson, a member of the Provost Corps, attached to the Army Department at Greymouth, stated that on May 25 last, when with four other members he was searching the bush near Kumara, he came upon a tent which was apparently being occupied. The man they were looking for was a particularly dangerous type, and thev made a- search of the tent. Under the head of the bed they found the rifle, and five or six rounds of ammunition. He took possession ol the rifle and handed it to the police at Greymouth. Constable L. Studholme, of Kumara, stated that as a result of a complaint made to him by Stuart, that the rifle had been stolen, he took statements from both defendants. Stuart stated that he had lent the rifle to defendant'Case, with eight or nine rounds of ammunition, Case stating that he wanted to do some shooting. Case had told him that the rifle had been stolen from a tent off the loop-line road near Kumara. The rifle was valued at £5 5/-. Case’s statement was that he had borrowed the rifle and ammunition to do some deer shooting. He had left the rifle in the tent, and it had been stolen. The tent was owned by his brother. To the Senior-Sergeant: No application had been made to. him for a permit for Case to procure the rifle. The Senior-Sergeant stated that the man the Army were looking for was suspected of being in the vicinity. Constable J. Johnston, officer in charge of the Arms Office at Greymouth, stated that the rifle was registered in the name of the defendant Stuart. The S.M. said there were features about the case other than the procuring of the rifle without a permit. Case not only borrowed the rifle, but also left it where it would be available for a third nerson. He took a more serious view of the charge against Case, who would be convicted and fined £3, with 10/- costs,

and 3/3 witness’s expenses.. Stuart would be convicted and fined £1 with 10/- costs and 3/3 witness’s expenses. On the application of the SeniorSergeant, an order was made for the forfeiture of the rifle and ammunition to the Crown.