NOISY MOTOR-CYCLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22210, 10 September 1935, Page 10

NOISY MOTOR-CYCLE

SPEEDING IN ONEHUNGA FINE IMPOSED ON OWNER A noise sufficient to interfere with the apparatus of a picture theatre, and resembling a machine-gun in full blast, formed the basis of three charges against a motor-cyclist, John Patrick Burke, boilcrmaker, of Ellerslie, in the Onehunga Police Court .yesterday. Uurke was charged with operating a motor-cycle without an efficient silencer, failing to display, regulation lights, and driving at a dangerous speed up and down Queen Street, Onehunga, 011 the night of July 27. Wesley Martin, manager of the Strand Picture Theatre, said in evidence that he saw accused travelling up Queen Street at a terrific speed with the exhaust open and creating a noise similar to a machine-gun. It was loud enough, he said, to be recorded on and interfere with the speaking machines m the theatre. Sergeant S. A. Brown, who also saw accused, estimated his speed at 50 miles an hour. There was no rear light on the machine. Accused did not appear in Court, but Constable E. Davis, of Ellerslie, read a statement in which accused admitted having ridden at 40 miles an hour and acknowledged that the noise was too loud. The cycle, lie said, was a racing machine and the throttle was difficult to regulato. After the production by the police of a list of previous similar convictions, accused was fined on each charge an aggregate and .costs. "An expensive evening's amusement," remarked the magistrato, Mr. W. It. McKean.