POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 17266, 16 September 1919, Page 11

POLICE COURT NEWS.

_«!> MEAN THEFT BY A YOUTH.

STEALS FROM HIS FRIENDS.

Evidence of a mean theft was given in a iase in which a young man named John Arthur Williams, alias Rush, appeared in ilia Police Court yesterday before Mr. J. K. Wilson, S.M. He pleaded guilty to hiving stolen a gladstone bag and content.', worth £5, from John Wylie, and a returned soldier's badge and wound stripo, worth 16s 6d, from William Appleby.

, Senior-Sergeant. McNamara stated that the. accused had been at the hospital at Rotorua for some time. He there met', the other two men. On Saturday afternoon the accused was taken by his friends to their rooms in a hotel and after he left Wylie miased his bag and Appleby his uniform badges. The police subsequently found the missing articles in a billiardroom.

It was stat.'d that accused had been discharged from a reformatory about four years ago, and in order that the police might investigate has behaviour during that intervening period, the magistrate granted a remand until Thursday.

ALLEGED ATTEMPT, TO WOUND. i The affray between seamen and civilians in Queen Street on Saturday evening, in which one man was cut with a kftlfe, led to the appeal in Court of Juan Palxtstre, a young foreign seaman from the barqucntine E. R. Sterling. He was charged with assault, attempting to wound, and committing mischief. On the application of Captain Sterling, master of the vessel, he was remanded until to-day. MAN FINED FOR ASSAULT. " I plead guilty, but I was blind drunk," said Jo© Davis, when charged with having assaulted Samuel GoMbery jm Pamell on Saturday afternoon. Ooldbery said he was a hav.-ker, and asserted that the accused, after interfering •with his horse, jumped on to the cart and tried to fight him. He then ran away, and after a chase in Gillies Park was caught by the police. Accused was fined £3"and prohibited. 5 ————— CONVICTIONS FOR THEFTS. Harry R«gen, who was convicted !ai>t week for having stolen ..1 jib of tea. the property of the Union Steam Ship Company and for having gone aboard the Mbkiira without permission, was sentenced tc 24 hours' imprisonment with hard labour.

AH knowJaig© of the then: of a rue valued at £1 was denied by James Gordon, a fireman from the Australian}. He said he had bean too drunk to remember anything. The evidence showed that. the, accused found the rag outnde a earner's office in Fort Street and took it to his cabin, where it was found bv Constable Go-srley. Accused was fined £2, with ISs costs, and ordered to return the rug.

MISCELLANEOUS OFFENCES. The use of obscene language in Queen Street on Saturday night was denied by Nino Folitan, a young native* of Niue Inland. Sergeant Boche said that when b.sing arreafeed far drunkenness, which he admitted, the accused used the language in the presence of crowds of people. A fsne of £5, in default 28 days' imprisonment, was imposed. Samuel Jackson, who, it was stated, had been convicted five times for drunkenness and the same number of times for breaches of his prohibition order, was sentenced to 12 months' detention at Roto fk>a Island.

For his third offence of drunkenness James Butcher was. fined 20a, in default srven days' imprisonment. Three first offenders forfeited 10s bail and one was convicted and discharged.