COURT INCIDENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24251, 17 April 1942, Page 6

COURT INCIDENT

MAN ADMITS CHARGE UNUSUAL DEVELOPMENT After a milk vendor, Jacob Esau Harris, .had pleaded guilty in the Police Court yesterday to a charge of driving a motor-truck while intoxicated on Wednesday afternoon a Maori, Harry Kelly, appeared at the Court and claimed that he had been driving the truck at the time. Mr. H. F. Levien, S.M., had adjourned the hearing to consider the penalty and a few minutes before the case was reopened Kelly approached the defending counsel, Mr, Garland, and made his statement. Sub-Inspector Macnamara said that while driving his truck along Lake Road, Devonport, at 5.55 p.m. on Wednesday, Harris had collided with another truck, had failed to stop, and had then hit a cyclist, dragging the bicycle along for a quarter of a mile. Harris then parked the truck and was found later at his home in an intoxicated condition. Counsel said Harris conducted a business which before the war he carried on with the help of his four sons, who were now in the armed forces. He was now working from 1.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. He had several men assisting for an hour or two and even had a minister of religion driving the van at times. In addition to his round he supplied 500 gallons daily to a military camp. He was prepared to take out a prohibition order. Mr. Garland later described the adrent of Kelly as a most unexpected development. Ho was an employee of Harris but had had no opportunity to communicate with Harris since the Court rose. He claimed that he had been driving and that Harris, who was drunk, had been sitting with him. Police evidence and the evidence of the examining doctor would bear out that accused had stated he could remember nothing about the occurrence. The magistrate, in granting an adjournment until Monday, said that Kelly had also made himself liable to a charge.