A TWO-UP SCHOOL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11222, 30 May 1922, Page 5

A TWO-UP SCHOOL

DESCENT BY POLICE SIXTEEN MEN ARRESTED NEAR BEIUIAMPORE. CONSTABLES AMONG PLAYERS. The story of the breaking up of a Berhampore two-up school was told in tiie Magistrate’s Court yesterday. It appeared that on Sunday the police descended on the school and arrested sixteen men, who were summoned before the magistrate. Their names ivere :—James Smith, John Millar,, Alfred Rowan Payne, Lawrence Dobsmi, Joseph Richards, Charles Frederick I-iobbs, Charles Killein, Thomas Pauling. John Ernest Love, Arthur Barkham, David Birrell, James Grant, Richard Haylock, Percy James Braitlivaite, John James and Thomas Joseph Ryan. Grant did not appear, and all the others except James pleaded guilty. I-lOW THE SCHOOL WORKED. Sub-Inspector McNamara, outlining the case, said that lor a considerable time “a two-up school in, an amended form” had been, playing ‘on a public reserve among the hills at Berhampore, out toward Island Bay. The amendment in the style of the game was that instead of throwing the pennies from a kip they shook them in an ordinary dice shaker and turned them out on a tray. The rest of the proceedings were'similar to the game as ordinarily known. The school was in the habit of starting at about 9 or 10 o’clock on Sunday mornings and soifletim.es >it ran on till 3 in the afternoon. The highest number of players in recent weeks had been 32. The amount of money on hand at one time liad been from £6O to £IOO. PROMINENT PLAYERS ABSENT. Many of the men who had been caught in tlie school yesterday had been there for the first time, and many of the most prominent members of the school had been absent that day. Two probationary constables had been playing in the school for a while and yesterday police descended on the school, and as a result these sixteen men had been brought in About £6O had been found, on them. Some of the arrested men were married and had very little money. Only one had been before the court before. “Scotty” Miller had been the ringleader on the Sunday of rhe raid, but on other Sundays he had been a scout. So far as James was concerned he had been caught when breaking away from the school, and evidence would be called to show that lie had played. First of all he had said he was staying at the Hotel Cecil and he kr*.d produced stationery to prove it. Afterwards ho had said that he was not staying at the Cecil and had given little or no information about himself. Rather than tell the police where the money for his bail could be obtained he had said it would be cheaper to stay in the cells all night than pay his board. POLICE PLAYERS GIVE EVIDENCE, Evidence was called in James’s case. Walter Lewis Pellew, probationary constable, deposed that James was in the school last Sunday. Patrick Daniel Doherty, probation, ary constable, said James had taken part in the school on May 14th and 28th. "William A. Lee said he arrested James, who was running away. James said he was running away from a horse at the time. “I’ve never been, chased by a horse,” remarked tho magistrate. On oath James described himself as an engineer, ancl said he had been in New Zealand only about three weeks The defendants were fined £3 each.