DISPUTE OVER LOAN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 September 1924, Page 7

DISPUTE OVER LOAN.

LEADS TO ASSAULT. In’ the New Plymouth Afagistrate’s Court on Saturday, before Mr A. AI. Alowlem, S.AI., Adam Lile was charged with assaulting John Gildroy Grant on Friday afternoon. The defendant elected to be dealt with summarily, and pleaded guilty, states the Taranaki Herald. Senior-Sergeant AlcCrorie, who appeared for the police, said that Grant was a contractor living at Westown. On Friday he was in the private bar of the Terminus Hotel, when Lile came in with some friends. He called Grant out into the yard, and asked about a sum of £2O which he had lent to him some time ago. Grant said he would pay as soon as he could get the money, and when he told Lile his address was Westown the latter remarked that that was not the address he had given the last time he was asked. Grant then told Lile to go and see Grey, his solicitor. Further words passed between the parties, Lile saying he would “crack’’ Grant,'and from Words they came to blows, the complainant being struck about the face. Mr R. H. Quilliam, who appeared for the defendant, said the assault was provoked, but he did not propose to try to justify the action of Lile, who was very sorry for what he had done, and desired to assure the Bench that he would not again take the law into his own hands. ' The fact were that some time ago Grant had told a pitiful story to Lile, who had him a loan of £2O on the security of his contracting' plant. Every fortnight since then he had asked Grant for, the repayment of the money, which was' to be merely a temporary accommodation, but he had never been able to get hismoney. On. Friday he met Grant at the. Terminus Hotel, and not desiring to discuss the matter publicly he invited him out into the yard. Here Grant became “cheeky:” and Lile, whose patience was. exhausted, lost his temper. The primeval instinct came to the surface, and a fair fight took place. Counsel suggested the matter might have been allowed to rest there, as it was not nearly the one-sided affair which the account given -by the police suggested.- There had been no publicity over the matter, and the incident had not taken place within view of the public. Lile, however, realised that he had done wrong, and was sorry for his conduct.

In reply to the Alagistrate, the police said that no permanent injury had been done to the complainant. The Alagistrate said the policy of the la w was not to allow people, who could not control their tempers to take the law into their own hands. The defendant would be. convicted and fined £3.