ORDERS AGAINST RATANA

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 2 November 1933, Page 5

ORDERS AGAINST RATANA

JUDGMENTS IN DEBT CLAIMS

FAILURE TO APPEAR, IN COURT The well known Maori prophet, ‘T. VV. R'atana, was the judgment debtor in two cases heard in the Magistrate’s Court' at Marton yesterday, says the Wanganu i “Gh ronicle. ’ ’ When Rataua’s name was called his private secretary stepped forward. ’ The magistrate (who had apparently seen the prophet before): You are not Ratana.

The secretary : 1 am appearing on his behalf.

The magistrate: That will not do. The summons instructed him to appear personally and I would have him understand that he must appear personally. The secretary: But I have always ippeared for him in court proceedings. The magistrate: Well, it won’t do. I want to hear Ratana’s story from his own lips or not at all. -■ • Mr K. A. Williams, who represented bow and Gregory, drapers, Marton, and sought an order fo-r £159 12s lOd, said he felt justified in making the application. Ratana, he said, had established a new pah at Pat-ea and with a party bad just had 1 a- trip to North Auckland, and funds were now being accumulated for a further tour abroad. The magistrate : Well, I "have no evideee as to that. Had ' Ratana been here you could have examined" him- on it. v ‘ ' To the secretary: "What can you offer ? The secretary : £lO per month. . The magistrate: Make it £ls. Mr J. R. L. Stanford (who appeared for the other judgment creditors): I would remind vonr Worship that there is another application for an order.

The magistrate: That has nothing to do with the present case. Make it £ls. The secretary: Very well. An order was made accordingly with solicitor’s fees £3 3s, .default being fixed at three months’ imprisonment. Mr Stanford, representing W. J. Beard, H. Austin, Mabel Greenwood and Nellie Bachelor, applied for an. order for the payment of £2O 3s 9d. The, magistrate said that £3 per month should be paid. “Does that suit you?” he a-sked the secretary, who nodded in reply.

An order was made for this amount with solicitor’s fees £1 11-s 6d, default being 21 days’ gaol. Mr Stanford, in the course of his remarks, endorsed what Mr Williams had said regarding Ratana’-s present activity, adding that the,prophet had recently been fined £SO for being drunk in charge of a car and the money had been found immediately. “In future,” said the magistrate, as a parting shot at the secretary, “Ratana must submit himself to, the examination or take the consequences.”