A STREET COMMOTION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 December 1924, Page 7

A STREET COMMOTION.

DRUNKEN NATIVE COUPLE, FINES INFLICTED. Drink, an argument, and an arrest, by the police was the natural sequence of events for a newly-married native couple who attracted attention in High sti'eet on Saturday afternoon, and this morning appeared before Mr J. G. Osborne, J.P., charged with drunkenness. Sergeant Henry said that the man was a first offender, but the woman was a statutory first offender, she having been convicted on previous occasions, but not within the past six months. The sergeant said that at 3.5 p.m. on Saturday the woman was arrested, and was subsequently admitted to bail at the sum of £l. Native women, he said, were prohibited by law from procuring liquor, and it was a serious offence for a native woman to be found drunk in the street. He would ask for a substantial penalty. Mr O’Dea, for defendant, said there had been a commotion in the street, the native man having told him that the woman, who was his wife, had been given drink by a pakeha. He had been annoyed with her, and when she refused to take any notice of him he had pulled her skirt off, thinking that that would stop her “carrying on.” The woman had then gone and complained to the nolice, and later, after she had been told to go home, she had been arrested, Mr 0 Dea said that the whole thing was due to drink supplied by the lowest kind of a white man, who" would do so for an ulterior purpose. It had been the mother of the native woman :at present before the court that Mr Usborne had recentlv sentenced to 10 days imprisonment, and he could say that that sentence had had a most beneficial effect amongst the natives. He had tried to find out who the nakehas were who had sunplied the Jiquor m thjg present case, but he could get nothing out of the natives. Mr Osborne said that in the case of r lO woman lie would inflict a fine of 40s and Is 6d cab hire. Native women m future would not get the option of a fine from him; thev would be sent to gaol. ? husband, who pleaded guiltv said he did not know how much drink he- had had.

Sergeant Henry said that the native was a -stranger, he having come here lecently from Hawke’s Bay. • a- ar *d Is 6d cab hire was .inflicted. \