TAXES DEFECTIVE BRAKES

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 February 1947, Page 2

TAXES DEFECTIVE BRAKES

OWNER AND DRIVER IN COURT KANIERI ACCIDENT SEQUEL [SPECIAL REPORTER] HOKITIKA This Day. “It is very important to see that a taxi is in proper order,” said the Magistrate, Mr. A. A. McLachlan, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Hokitika yesterday to Roy Norman Ward and Richard James Steele, who had pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle without efficient brakes. Steele also pleaded guilty to a charge of having no certificate of fitness for the vehicle. Sergeant A. Mclntyre, who prosecuted, said that Ward was the driver and Steele the owner of a taxi which collided at Kanieri with a boy cyclist, Frank William Shields. The boy was seriously injured, but was now recovering. On police inquiries being made it was found that the taxi had inefficient brakes. On October 15 the taxi was examined by the vehicle inspector and its certificate of fitness suspended, pending repairs. The defendant Steele had some repairs done and obtained a warrant of fitness, considering that this entitled him to use the taxi, but the suspension of the c'ertificate was never lifted. Inspection Awaited. The defendant Steele said that he got all the work done that the vehicle inspector left him to get done and he thought that the warrant of fitness would carry him until the vehicle inspectoi* came down from Greymouth. The Magistrate said he would take into account the fact that penalties against both the defendants would probably have to be paid by the owner. Ward was fined £l, with 13/- costs’: On the charge of not having a certificate of fitness Steele was fined .10/-, with 13/- costs, and the other charge was dismissed on payment of costs. George Tui O’Brien did not appear to answer a charge of exceeding 40 miles per hour on the Grey-mouth-Hokitika highway.

Inspector J. A. Ramsay, of the Transport Department, said he checked the defendant’s speed at 60 miles pei* hour and when stopped he said his passengers had missed the rail-car and he was trying to catch it at Greymouth. The defendant was fined £4, with 10/- costs. On a charge of operating an unlicensed radio set, Richard Andrew Haussmann, who did not appear, was fined 10/-, with 10/- costs. Claim for Dwelling. After announcing that he would inspect the house offered the defendant, the Magistrate reserved his decision in the case in Which Rex Athelstone Tomkies, motor • driver (Mr. M. B. James), sought an order for possession of a house from Claude Vivian Adam, grocery manager (Mr. W. D. Taylor). Mr. James said the plaintiff was holding the house (No. 188 Revell street) under an agreement for sale and purchase. Notice to quit had been duly served and it was simply a case of whether the alternative accommodation offered the defendant was suitable.

Lengthy evidence was tendered by both parties relative to a house (on which the plaintiff was paying rent), stated to be obtained by the plaintiff for the defendant from the Westland Dairy Company. The plaintiff claimed that it was a reasonably good house, but the defendant produced certificates from Dr. E. J. Velvin to the effect that his daughter suffered from rheumatic fever and that the house in question was an unsuitable home for her, being low and damp. Examined by Mr. Taylor, the plaintiff said that there was an agreement with the vendor, Holley, that if he could not get possession of the house occupied by the defendant, the deal would be off. In reply to suggestions by counsel that he should inspect the house offered to the defendant, the Magistrate said the court did not want to be put in the position of swaying the balance of ' evidence. Inspections were carried out merely to correct some ambiguity of evidence. Later, however, he announced that he would make an inspection and give his decision next Friday.