A MAYOR CONVICTED!

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4954, 11 February 1937, Page 4

A MAYOR CONVICTED!

BURGESSES AND COUNCILLORS TOO! It is not often that the Mayor, Borough Councillors and burgesses are prosecuted for an offence, but at the Te Awamutu Magistrate’s Court the other morning the parties named above were defendants in a prosecution by Mr. G. H. Webb, noxious weeds inspector of the Raglan County Council, who successfully maintained that the mayor, councillors and burgesses of the Borough of Te Awamutu, being the occupiers of certain lands in the Pirongia West district, had failed to clear the land of ragwort, and keep it clear. The Magistrate commented that the defendants were referred to as the Mayor and Borough Councillors; actually the burgesses of the borough should be included, and he amended the claim accordingly. Mr. H. A. Swarbrick, the Borough solicitor, stated that the work of clearing had been commenced last Friday, and he suggested that the case be adjourned until next Court day. This his Worship declined to do, and recorded a conviction, with a fine of £2 and costs 10s, remarking that he must treat the defendants just the same as private landowners, some of whom were in very straitened circumstances, yet were convicted of similar breaches.