BOUCHER THE BUM.

NZ Truth, Issue 78, 15 December 1906, Page 5

BOUCHER THE BUM.

"Every Man His Own Bailiff." A Snaky Snatch That Cost a Timepayment Shark Dear. '! "Every man his own bum-bailil" is a legal treatise yet to be written and the suggestion is here thrown out gratis to -vyoukl-be authors. Now the man who is his own lawyer, is said to have a fool for his client. There may be something m the assertion, but the man who is his own bum-bailiff has something moire than a fool for his client. He is a blanky idiot, particularly if he' does not know the Law concerning bums, because the Law is good-natured enough to metaphorically put a picket fence around a bum, and if he attempts to climb he comes a cropper. A man who set out to be his own [ bum-bail ifi, and who attempted to l scale that picket fence, was m cviJdence at the Wellington S.M.s Court, on Tuesday morning:, and what befel him is about to be related. Young men now-a-days are not m the fashion if not possessed of bicycles, and "grid-irons" m ( these parlous times arc easily obtainable, at so much down and so much per week. George Frederick Milner, a young jeweller residing m a Murphystreet boarding-house last January, or thereabouts, 'became possessed of the craze and signed a "death warrant" with one Joseph Boucher, a cycle-agent, of Molesworth-street, and also residing at THE MURPHY-STREET MUSHr ErtY, whereunder Milner received a bicycle on paying down a fiver and promising to pay the balance of £10 at the rate of £1 per month. These payments seem to have been regularly made every month, and as a younger Milner had obtained a bicycle on like terms Boucher verbally agreed, though the hire contract stipulated £15, to knock oft £l each on consideration of their custom. Owing to the younger Milner 's laxity ; m meeting his monthly debt the relations of the parties became. some-' what strained, and Murphy-street was the othe.r day treated to the edifyine spectacle of the cycle agent grabbing the younger Milner by the throat and the elder brother BANGING BOUCHER on the top-piece with a yard of timber, the ostensible purpose of i which operation was to make him I let go his hold. This little display lof ilMeeling did not tend to a renewal of friendly terms and Boucher carried his indignation to such a length as to refuse to accept Geo. P Milner's instalment, referring him instead to his lawyer, Mr A. Dunn, to whom he despatched a registered letter containing £2, which was a final payment of the £14 due on the bike. JUST TO BE NASTY Boucher determined to seize one of the bikes, and though he said he meant to have seized that of the rour.jrer Milner, the facts, as elicited by Mr Herdman.) showed that bounc-

in*- Boucher did not exercise much care, as he surreptitiously sneaked Freddy's maohine from a shed at the rear of the premises where the parties res Me. Then Boucher interviewed his lawyer and received some startling information that .caused him to hastily restore the bike to. its shed. . This is just where ,-r BOUCHER BOUGHT HEAPS -OF TROUBLE for himself. Legally he had no right to lay a linger on that bicycle, and as George Frederick had been obliged to go to work two days without his bicycle he felt injured and sought consolation from Magistrate McArthur m a claim for £S, the ground being that Boucher had entered upon premises where he • (Milner) resided and without leave or license had removed a bicycle the property of the said George Frederick Milner. ' Boucher's experience as his own bum-bailiff was dearly bought. Magistrates have not often the chance of saying what they no doubt frequently think of sharks who, when the stipulations of hire contracts are almost . fulDlled grow alarmingly restless and evince great anxiety for their dues, which hitherto had been oromptly paid. This gave Magistrate McArthur his opportunity and he said pretty plainly what he thought of the man who wanted BOTH BIKE AND BOODLE. Boucher hadn't a chance from the word "go," and whatever merit there mig-ht have been m his story of thebicycle being a case of mistaken identity it did not impress itself upon the Doctor, who 'considered that he had never heard a clearer 'case. Here was a man taking the Law into his own hands. I! anything was due it' was only £2 and he had Straight away gone to ths shed and took the bicycle off. "If people wished," said the Magistrate '.'to recover 1 : what was due to them 'they should go about it m the proper lepal way." In this case Boucher had- taken what did nat belong to him. A verdict for £3 and costs was given against him.