MAGISTRATE’S COURT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7029, 18 January 1910, Page 3

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

MONDAY, JANUARY 17. (Before Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M.) DRUNKENNESS. Several first offenders were convicted of drunkenness and discharged. Sarah Jamieson, who had been remanded from a previous day for medical treatment, was ordered to pay £2 Is medical expenses or fourteen days’ imprisonment. There were forty-two previous convictions against her. The following persons for similar offences wore fined in the amounts stated: —George Gibbs, 10s or twentyfour hours; James Arthur, 10s or twenty-four hours; John. Woods, 10s or twenty-four hours; Thomas McLaughlam, 6s or twenty-Jour hours; John Mansfield was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment. John Clark, who being drunk insisted upon entering a tramcar, was fined 6s and throe witnesses’ expenses 3s each, in default forty-eight hours’ imprisonment. THEFT.

John Mayne pleaded guilty to a charge Of having stolen three blankets, a portmanteau, a sot of howls, and some other articles, the property of various persons, of the total - value of £4 4s. It appeared., that the defendant climbed into an hotel by the fire escape and entering a bedroom stripped , the bed of its blankets and sold them to a second-hand dealer. He took the bowls from the vestibule of -the Bristol Private Hotel. He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent; the property to bo returned to the owners. Alexander McDonald, who is .charged with the theft of a pair of trousers valued at 14s, was remanded for sentence. STUDIES FROM THE NUDE. William Butler, for whom Mr Meredith appeared, pleaded not guilty to a charge of having at Day’s Bay exposed to public view an indecent picture. The case was of a somewhat unusual character. The defendant, it appeared, had not been long out from England. Ho obtained employment with the proprietor of some penny-in-the-slot machines at Day’s Bay in _ which photographic pictures were exhibited. Most of these pictures were possessed of considerable educational value, inasmuch as they illustrated scenery ini parts of Canada, and various other places of interest. But included amongst the photographs was one entitled “Washing Day .at Mrs O’Reilly’s,” which, it was said, mas of a very different character. A clergyman,_ who had put his . "nimble penny” in the slot, was much shocked at the inclusion of such an objectionable photograph in a series of really edifying pictures. Thereupon the police took action. The defence was that the defendant had been instructed to Bo through the whole of the pictures that wero to be exhibited in the machine and discard any that were of a suggestive character, and it was through an error of judgment that he allowed this particular photograph to pass into the machine. Defendant had nothing to gain by exhibiting the photograph, and his counsel suggested that, the case would be met if the defendant were convicted and discharged, as there was no likelihood of the offence being repeated. His Worship held that the picture was undeniably indecent and he ordered its destruction. Defendant was convicted and fined £3, costs ss, in default seven days’ imprisonment. BETTING WITH A MINOR.

Thomas Mulcahy, alias Dawson, who did not appear, 'had a charge preferred against him of having betted with a lad named Eager George Ehayle, a boy sixteen years ,of age, at the last trotting race meeting at Petone. •. < Detective Hammond said that MulCahy was the only bookmaker betting on the course at the time. The boy went to him before tho Poneke Stakes race and backed a. horse named 1 Lonsdale to the amount of 2s. Tho detective went to the boy and took his ticket. Lonsdale won the race and the detective went t© SMulcahy and-re-ceived on behalf of the hoy the-sum of ss, The lad gave evidence in support of this statement, and the accused (who, it is said, left for Sydney on Friday Inst) wfc-s sentenced to one month's imprisonment with hard labour.

BREACHES OF THE CITY BY-LAWS. A number of minor breaches of the municipal by-laws were dealt with. The offences wore mainly riding bicycles and driving vehicles without lights, and the delinquents were fined in various sums

ranging up to , 10s with the usual alternatives.

Frederick Walter Boyd was charged with having erected a building without having first received a permit from the city engineer. Mr D. M. Findlay, who appeared for the defendant, said ho was in partnership with his brother, who attended to all business arrangements, whilst ho (defendant), was the practical man who did the actual work. His brother was absent from Wellington and defendant was under the impression that before leaving ho had obtained the necessary permit. Fined 10s, 9s costs, solicitor’s fee £1 Is, or forty-eight hours’ imprisonment. Dr D. L. Clay was fined 10s, with costs 7s, for using water for his garden which had not passed through a meter. Solicitor’s fee £1 Is. Thomas Kelly for re-using building material not certified to by the city engineer, and which was found to he unsound, was fined 40s, 9b oosts- and £1 Is solicitor’s fees..

Joseph James Moore for commencing the erection of a building without, having obtained a permit was fined 10s, costs 9s, solicitor’s costs, £1 Is. Robert. Daniel, the owner of a ferocious collie dog which had a penchant for chasing tram-cars up Brooklyn way, and biting at the conductors’ boots, thus often endangering the safety of the.ancn. as frequently, some of them had come very close to, falling off the foot-boards, said the cause of the trouble was that the tram men wore always teasing the dog. He had. however, sent the animal out of town. Defendant was fined 4ft;. with 11s costs of Court, costs of two witnesses 6s each, and solicitor’s fee, £1 Is. MAINTENANCE OASES. • William Garthgate .White for disobedience of an. order for the maintenance of his wife was fined 2Ds, and solicitor’s fee, £1 Is. Borden Feran was ordered to pay 7s per week for the support of his illegitimate infant daughter, the child of Violet Armstrong. Henry Julius. Ackerman was oi’dered to pay ’ss per week towai'ds the support of his mother. | HAINING STREET AMENITIES. Nellie Yung Hoe, who lives in Haining street, was charged by Kathleen Mullvill, who resides in the same malodorous vicinity, with haying used some exceedingly bad language. She was convicted and fined 40s and 11s Court fees, in default fourteen days’ imprisonment. JUVENILE COURT. .... Three boys convicted of having stolen a purse containing 12s 6d were each sentenced to receive six strokes of the birch.