DRIVERS IN COURT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23011, 12 April 1938, Page 16

DRIVERS IN COURT

INTOXICATION CHAKGES PROSECUTION OF MAORI QUESTION OF PENALTIES "It cannot be expected that there should be absolute uniformity in the matter of penalties in cases of this sort, irrespective of the fact that the accused is a Maori or a. pakeha," said Mr. A\ . R. McKean, S*.M., in the Police Court yesterday, in reply to the submissions of Mr. Sullivan, counsel for a Maori labourer, Henry Kahui, aged 31, who was charged with being intoxicated in charge of a motor-car at Orakei on Saturday. Accused pleaded guilty. Sub-Inspector Flanagan said accused drove his own car from the city to tho Government housing settlement at Orakei, where he was arrested at 6.10 p.m. on Saturday by two traffic inspectors who were patrolling tho roads around that district. Some time later a doctor certified that accused was intoxicated and unfit to drive a car. Counsel said accused was married, and had never before been in any kind of trouble. He had had only two glasses of beer, and, according to tho doctor, his condition was not very bad. When arrested he wns near tho place he intended visiting. Referring to penalties in such cases, Mr. Sullivan pointed out that the Court recently fined a pakeha £2O for a first offence, and on the same day a Maori was fined £lO for a second offence. The magistrate remarked at the time that the difference in the status between the Maori and the pakeha had to be taken into consideration. Accused was fined £ls, and his driving licence was cancelled for 12 months. Fourteen days were allowed for payment.

YOUNCJ MAN CHARGED REMAND ON BAIL GRANTED A glass bender. Mervyn Thomas Jackson, aged 2S (Mr. McCarthy), appeared before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday, charged with being intoxicated in charge of a motor-car in Queen Street on Saturday. Accused was remanded until to-day. Bail of £SO was extended. TRUCK'S FALL INTO OREEK INSPECTOR GIVES HELP £by telegraph—Pit ESS association] DUX ED IX, Monday "This man was unfortunate in that when he tried to attract tho attention of passing motorists it was a traffic inspector who came to his assistance," stated counsel when Albert John Sanders, aged 27, whose truck left the road and plunged into a creek near Green Island on the night of April 2, admitted being intoxicated in charge of his truck. Sanders and two companions had a narrow escape from drowning. Mr. A. W. Bundle, S.M., fined defendant £lO and suspended his driver's licence for 12 months.