ALLEGED VAGRANCY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1202, 15 March 1895, Page 33

ALLEGED VAGRANCY.

On Monday afternoon Detective Neill and Acting-Detective Gantley made several arrests under the vagrancy clause of the Police Offences Act, and shortly after 4 o’clock Mr Martin, S.M., sat in the Magistrate’s Court to deal with the cases. The first man charged with “ having no lawful visible means of support ” was Thomas Harvey, who said he arrived in Wellington on Tuesday in last week from Dunedin. He was a bookmaker, and was on liis way to Wanganui to pursue his calling. When he arrived here he left his portmanteau at the railway station, but found the following morning that it had been sent up the Wairarapa. He instructed a solicitor, who had the matter in hand, and he (Harvey) had been staying here since to attend to the matter. There were <£4o worth of clothes in the portmanteau. On the application of Inspector Pender, accused was remanded until Saturday, to enable the police to make enquiries, bail being fixed at two sureties of .£25 each. The next man charged was James White, who said he had only been in Wellington since Saturday. He also was remanded until Saturday, on the same bail as in Harvey’s case.

In the case of Francis McNally, the third man charged, accused was sworn and said he was a hawker, and, besides jewellery and soft goods, was. occupied in selling a puzzle of his own invention. On Friday last he sold 4s worth of the puzzles at the Bank of New Zealand, and he had also disposed of them at many places in Lambton quay and Willis street. He had only been here a week last Saturday, and had made upwards of £4 in that time. He would, he said, be able to prove his statement if a constable went round to some of the shops with him, and a remand for half an hour was granted him for that purpose. On resuming, Acting-Detective Gantley

i gave the result of the visits paid. At j accused’s lodgings he said he found a bag j containing several puzzles made up, and a

trunk containing material for making up a | large number of others. He found two ' places where accused had sold these puzzles. Accused had a license issued at Auckland dated 17th February, 1894, but he had no license applying to Wellington or Dunedin. He had known accused for some, years, but had not seen him here for about four years. He saw him recently in Dunedin in company with convicted thieves and also saw him with several convicted thieves on the Dunedin racecourse and at the railway station. He had seen him lately hanging round one particular hotel in Wellington and about the town, but had not seen him hawking. He knew accused as a spieler, a “ three-card-trick man,” and an associate of thieves. Accused said he had been earning an honest living for the last three years and a i half. Accused was remanded until Saturday, bail being fixed at two securities of £25 each.