MAGISTRATES COURT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9736, 11 August 1917, Page 4

MAGISTRATES COURT

POLICE AND BY-LAW CASES. A number of police and by-law cases were dealt with by Mr ,S. E. McCarthy, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Annabella Swanson, for insobriety, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. Defendant had a long list of convictions against her. George Andrew Harton, for helpless drunkenness, was convicted and discharged', and ordered to pay 17s tid medical expenses. Walter Smith, am old .man who had difficulty in dragging hiinself into the dock, was called upon to answer a charge of assaulting a man named Nicholas Brandanovich on August Vth. .Chief-Detective Boddam said the assault was, alleged to have taken place at Auckland. ■ Accused was remanded ter, appear at Auckland on August 15th. On hearing what was to happen to him. Smith hurst into tears, and struggled out of the court. George Barnes and John Hallgram, two seafaring men, who, when in an inebriated condition, indulged in a stand-up fight in the street, were eaoh convicted and fined £2, and given the alternative of going to prison for seven days. The accused were ordered to be placed aboard their vessel should it sail before the expiry of the sentence. Thomas O’Brien admitted a charge of drunkenness, but denied a further charge of stealing a lady’s costume coat, valued at £4. He was fined 10s, on the first count, and remanded for a week on the second. Inspector Marsack said that the accused that morning said that he remembered taking the coat but could not recollect how he had disposed of it. ■ lan Duncan, for driving a motorcar at the (intersection of several streets in a manner contrary to the by-law, was convicted and fined 10s. with 17a 6d costs. Mr J. O’Shea, city solicitor, said that it was necee sary for a person in charge of a motorcar to drive round a constable on point duty, and'this defendant had omitted to do. •Patrick Murphy, for failing to provide his motor-car with sufficient lights, was fined £2, with costa 17s 6d. The case was peculiar, inasmuch as the defendant had a mishap with hia car, and ho and his wife were doing their heat to push the machine along the street, but found the task too strenuous a one. Murphy, according to Mr O’Shea, put the blame on to a third person, being afraid, so £e alleged, that a conviction against him would interfere with his license. Samuel Turner, for a similar offence, was fined 10s, with costs 17s 6d. For allowing stock to wander, John Reginald Welsby was mulcted to the extent of £2 7s, which included costs. Jane Hay vice, second-hand dealer, for purchasing a pair of boots after 6 o’clock in the evening, was fined 20s, with costs I7s. The case was the outcome of op© heard the previous day, when a- woman was sent to gaol for stealing a pair of boots, which she sold to a second-hand denier. George ’ Henry Thompson, described by Mr C. W. Tringbam, who appeared lor'him, as an ex-Mayo r of Taumaru■nui, denied a charge of driving a motor-car round the comer of Willis street into Manners street at a greater ’ pace than six miles an hour. Fho evidence that was adduced showed that a hoy on a bicycle and the motor-car collided. Tho Bench found the defendant guilty, and fined him £2, with costs.