FIREWOOD ON STREET

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1946, Page 4

FIREWOOD ON STREET

FIRST PROSECUTION AT GREYMOUTH CREATION OF NUISANCE An echo of recent complaints by the Greymouth Borough Council concerning residents obstructing streets by failing to move loads of firewooci delivered at their house frontages, was heard in the Magistrate’s Court at Greymouth to-day, when an information laid by the council against a resident of Bydia street was heard by Mr. A. A. McLachlan, S.M. Alexander Morrison Jones, a nurseryman, pleaded guilty to a charge that, from July .1 to July 17, 1946, he did leave on Lydia street a quantity of firewood, not being authorised by the Greymouth Borough Council or any act to do so. Mr. J. W. Hannan, who appeared for the council, said that the information was laid under section 203 of the Municipal Corporations Act, which provided for nuisances by way of obstructions left on streets. The defendant had glasshouses at the rear of his premises in Lydia street and, for the purpose of heating, got large quantities of wood. In June last, a full lorry load of firewood was deposited on the road at his gate. On June 12 the inspector of nuisances asked the defendant to remove it. The defendant declined and said that he would shift it when the borough engineer instructed another man to shift a garage off a road. Defendant went so far as to say that he would get other Ipads in the same way. A heavy penalty was not asked for, continued Mr. Hannan, although the Act provided for a penalty of £lO a day for this class of offence, realising the danger at night time created by (instructions on roads. The council had brought the case as a warning. It was the usual thing for people to get loads of wood delivered at thenhomes and the council did not mind, as long as they removed them at once. However, it seemed to be a # growing habit to leave the wood on the roads. „ . It was the usual custom for people to leave the wood on the road, for the sap to dry out, said the defendant. He did not know it was an offence, as hundreds did the same thing. He was not aware that he was breaking the law and did not get an official notice, in writing, to remove the wood. He had had no communication, beyond being told by the inspector to remove the wood. He had just been shifting the wood as it was used. The Magistrate: If you are given a good .tip at the National you take some notice of it? Why did you not make an investigation into the position when you were given an indication that you were breaking the law? The defendant said he had no excuse to offer on that point. The defendant was fined £1 and ordered to pay . £l/1/- solicitor’s fee and 10/- court costs.