ON PREMISES AT NIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21327, 31 October 1932, Page 11

ON PREMISES AT NIGHT

CHARGE OF VAGRANCY ELDERLY MAN CONVICTED On a charge of being a rogue and vagabond, in that he was found by night without lawful excuse on enclosed premises at Paoroa, Charles Barclay Dewar, an elderly man, was convicted by a jury in the Supreme Court on Saturday morning. The case was partly heard on Friday, before Mr. Justice Herdman, when it was stated that Dewar had been surprised by a constable while attempting to scale a wall at the back of a store, at one o'clock in the morning. Evidence regarding finding a bag of tools alleged to belong to the accused was given by James Philip Rooney, relief worker, "who said he picked it up near the root of a palm tree in the public reserve. Later he found small parcels containing gelignite, fuse, and steel bars. A Salvation Army officer, Guy Graham Goodday, said he knew tho accused, who had been staying at the Army hostel as J. Hardy. The screwdriver and a rubber bag made out of motor tubing, produced, were like those he had seen accused using. Mr. Noble claimed that the constable had arrested the wrong man and suggested that the police were improperly using tho Vagrancy Act to bolster up a weakness in their evidence.

His Honor explained that the Vagrancy Act placed the onus on any man found, as this man was, at night on enclosed premises, to show that lie had some lawful excuse for being there. So far as he knew, this man offered no excuse. The whole case depended on whether he was (lie man who was there. If the jury thought there was any doubt nhout his identification it was their business to acquit him, but if, on the other hand, they were satisfied that the constable was not. mistaken, they were well entitled to find the accused guilty. After the jury had given its verdict of guilty sentence was postponed.