“A HARD CASE.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 236, 4 September 1929, Page 7

“A HARD CASE.”

IDLE AND DISORDERLY CHARGE

AIAGISTRATE’S COAIAIENTS,

“This appears to be one of those ‘hard cases' met with and I don’t want to lock the man up if he can get work,” observed Air J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Alagistrate’s Court, this morning, when convicting and discharging Simon Brophy, a labourer, aged 37, on a charge of being idle and disorderly and with having no lawful visible means of support. Pleading not guilty to being without support, accused said that he had been drinking for a few days and, when looking for work, had come past the police station. He had called in to see if the police knew of any work he might be able to do, “but,” added Brophy, “they put me in for the night.” Constable Beaton stated that Brophy was raving in a drunken condition when he had gone into the station. He had had no money or anywhere to go and was detained. He had been sleeping in a shed. Senior-Sergeant Whitehouse said that inquiries showed that accused had been doing casual work in the Waipukurau district and that he was a returned soldier said •to be suffering from shell shock. The Alagistrate: Can’t he get work? “There doesn’t seem much chance of his getting a job about here,” answered the senior-sergeant. “But cannot the Returned Soldiers’ Association do something for him?” queried the Magistrate. Asked if he had his army discharge, accused said that it was in Timaru.

The Alagistrate: It seems that his being out of work is his worst fault. The senior-sergeant said that, in the condition in which Brophy had come to the police station, there had been no option but to detain him. He had two previous convictions, one for being drunk and causing wilful damage and one for using obscene language. The Alagistrate then took the action as stated.