Natives’ Liquor Offences Problem In Kawakawa

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1944, Page 2

Natives’ Liquor Offences Problem In Kawakawa

i (Special) KAWAJfAWA. This Day

“This is a very serious offence and will have to be put down,” remarked Mr. Raymond Ferner, S.M., when one of a number of charges relating to the supplying of liquor to natives came before him at Kawakawa on Monday. James Paratene, aged 25, a returned soldier on furlough from the Maori Battalion, faced a battery of five charges. Pleading guilty through Mr. E. H. Blundell. Paratene was fined £5 for assaulting Hector Alfred Burling, driver of the Kawakawa-Waikare bus. He was also convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within two years, also prohibited by his own consent, on each of three charges of drinking intoxicating liquor in the bus, ol' aiding and abetting in the unlawful supply of liquor to a native, himself, and of behaving offensively in a public place, Gillies Street, Kawakawa. He ivas further convicted and ordered to pay damage amounting to £2/10/- for smashing a pane of glass in the bus. Police statement was to the effect that, on March 7. Paratene had entered the bus lo go to Karetu and had dropped a bottle of wine on the floor. The driver told him to take it out, but he had returned with it under his tunic. While en route to Karetu, sitting cm the floor by the driver, he had taken (lie bottle out and drunk from it. The driver had thrown it out of the window and Paratene thereupon seized him by the collar and tie and also look hold of the wheel, causing the bus to swerve almost off the road. Smashed Window of Bus Interviewed and warned by Constable D. C. Muir, of Kawakawa, next day, he had defiantly bailed up Burling beside his bus and later punched liis fist through the window, severely cutting his arm. He had had to receive hospital treatment and appeared in conn with ids arm bandaged.

For acting as an agent in the purchase of liquor for a member of the armed forces, to wit, Paratene, Colin John Mackenzie, aged 21, railway porter on relieving duty at Otiria, was fined £lO, with court costs 10/-. On a charge of supplying liquor to a native he was fined £5, with 10/- costs. Party by Roadside An alcoholic sing-song in a Kawakawa side-street on the evening of February 22 led to the appearance in court of Harry Edmonds, aged about 25, a halfcaste, on a charge of supplying beer to natives, also of aiding and abetting in the supply of liquor to a native, himself. A fine of £‘s was imposed on tlie first count, but on the second accused was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within two years. He agreed to take out a prohibition order for that perid. On similar charges of aiding and abetting, his companions, Kena Tautari and Rangi Tana, were cat'll fined £2/10/witli 10/- court costs.