WEATHER FORECAST.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 1728, 21 September 1922, Page 5

WEATHER FORECAST.

Mr D. C. Bates, Government Meteorologist, reports for 24 hours from 9 a.m. this day:— The indications are for easterly winds, moderate to strong, and backing by east to north. There is a prospect of fair to cloudy weather and the night cold. Barometer little movement but falling again soon.

Sergeant fearnley presvS Mr G. P. Finlay defended.

Constable Sheahon said that on September 8 he saw two taxi-cars in front of the station. One was in charge of Oliver, and the other of a native named Manawaiti. The native immediately placed his car on the Sheridan Street stand when requested to do so. Oliver, however, adopted a different attitude. When requested to pull on to the stand, he said: "This is more of your dirty tricks. I had a chance to put it across you once, and I'll put it across you again."

Oliver then deliberately placed his car on the spot previously occupied by Manawaiti's car, saying he had permission from the borough foreman to leave it there, incidentally remarking that he (witness) was "one of those dirty jokers who was always looking for trouble." OLIVER'S EVIDENCE. George Oliver said that on the night in question he was engaged to meet the 11.30 p.m. express, and pulled up to the station behind Manawaiti's car. Constable Sheahon requested him to move on to the stand, but he refused. He admitted the use of the insulting language, but he had made no reference to the borough foreman. In his opinion, the space allotted for taxis in Sheridan Street was on the "wrong" side of the road, and was a menace to traffic. Questioned by Sergeant Fearnley, witness conveyed the impression that he personally did not car*e about the methods of Constable Sheahon. He had never wanted to fight McDonald, Manawaiti, or any other taxi-driver. A PHANTASMAGORIC DREAM. Mr G. P. Finlay addressed the Court at length on the by-laws involved, which he considered to be absolutely absurd, though amusing. The by-law set out to dear with four streets. They were Sheridan, Rora, Taupiri and King Streets. The bylaw dealing with the fixation of Sheridan Street as the taxi-stand was unreasonable and entirely absurd. In actual fact a taxi man could not move off the stand, without provoking a breach of the by-law. This particular by-law was nothing but the "weird phantasmagoric dream of some stray councillor."

By means of a coloured plan, Mi Finlay illustrated to the Court that as the stand was on the right hand side of the road facing the station, legitimate traffic coming down Rora Street was bound to clash with the oncoming taxi traffic from Sheridan Street.

"We now come," said Mr Finlay, "to the very apotheosis of absurdity. The by-law means that no car driver can leave his car anywhere unless he first "dumps" it on the Sheridan Street stand. No other town has legislated in such a ridiculously absurd manner. The by-law simply means that if the grocer came into town in his car, with a parcel for the top of the Mangarino Road, he would have to leave his car on one of the allotted spaces near the station, walk up and deliver his parcel, and come back and get in his car. The proviso to the by-law allows Oliver to wait at the station because it is a place of public assemblage. But the absolute last straw to the camel's back was by-law No 1, which inferentially gives the right for any vehicle to stand in any street so long as the vehicle is close to and parallel with the curbing. "By-law No. 5 says that in no other street than the four named may a person leave his vehicle at all, unless he is at some place of amusement, recreation, or assemblage. Continuing, Mr Finlay said that the piece of road in Rora Street laid down as a lawn was given to the borough for decorative purposes, and was the property of the Railway Department. The spot where Oliver's car was supposed to have been standing, though asphalted, was a continuation of the lawns, and did not belong to the borough at all. In conclusion, he submitted that the by-laws were "unreasonable, unjust, inequitable and absurd." Sergeant Fearnley mentioned that the by-laws had been instituted for the police to carry out, and that was all they were supposed to do. The by-laws in use in the Te Kuiti borough were almost an exact copy of those in use in Palmerston North, and, he believed, in Christchurch. The Magistrate, Mr F. W. Platts, said the validity of the by-laws had been attacked, and he would need some little time to consider his decision.