A PRECIOUS PEELER.

NZ Truth, Issue 119, 28 September 1907, Page 5

A PRECIOUS PEELER.

CONSTABLE WILLIAMS OF THE HUTT. A Champion of a Rotten FruitSelling Chow. A Copper Who is a Disgrace to the Force.

There is a policeman at the Hutt named Williams whose name and unsavory doings are by no means new to the columns of this respectable family journal, and, judging by his latest pranks at the Hutt, Williams is destined to still further figure m the pillory until such time that he considers it advisable to pursue a more righteous course, or until Police Commissioner Dinnie, m his wisdom, comes to the conclusion that Williams is no longer an ornament to the "foorce," and that conclusion this paper has arrived at long ago, which is, of course, another matter. Now, if everything "Truth" has heard is correct, Williams is waiting to catch this paper on the hop for a libel action, and he has gone so far as to confess that had he had the necessary cash he would long ago have brought

THE "RAG" TO ITS KNEES, metaphorically speaking, and at the penitent form, so to speak, make it express regret for its slanderous utterances. "Truth," anyhow, does not want to waste much time over Williams and his threats of libel, because if he feels aggrieved the best thing/he can do is to come along and try' his luck. What, however, is more to the point is the fact that lately this hard and hatchet-faced slop has been cutting a pretty caper m connection with the recent prosecution of a dirty, stinking brute of an alien Chow, who was the other day fined by the Hutt S.M. Court for exposing fruit for sale that was rotten and unfit for human consumption. Ah Wing Was the pestiferous alien's name, and the evidence showed to what extent Chinamen will go m their dirty, and dishonest attempts to get rid of rotten fruit, and to show m what state the fruit was (they were bananas), the evidence of Dr. Purdy will suffice. He said the bananas were completely rotten at the ends and were covered with mould. He had never seen bananas so bad: they were putrid. Four were so rotten that they could not be handled, but he took the other two and peeled them and found them to be bad right through, and the ends were putrid. The smell was also very bad, and the mildew "was growing on them. They were that filthy that they

WERE ALMOST INDESCRIBABLE. Should anyone have eaten them it might have been with dangerous results.

What Constable Williams had to do m, the matter can be easily gathered from the evidence of Mr Mills, the Hutt Borough Inspector. He stated that when his attention was drawn to the bad state o! the fruit, he sought the assistance of Constable Williams, who went into the kitchen when the Chinaman came out into the shop and started picking the bad bananas out of the window. He (Mills) asked him to sell them to him and tendered a two shilling; piece, but he would not sell. Constable Williams took a couple of them, broke a piece off the ends and took a couple of bites out of the centres, and remarked :

"These bananas are all right ; I have seen worse m Wellington." He asked Williams to seize the bananas, but he wouldn't. Clement O'Brien then came on the scene and he asked him to go and fetch along Constable Patton, who came, and on his orders the Chinaman very reluctantly sold him some. He (Mills) took them, to Dr. Purdy for his opinion.

Constable Patton's evidence was also to the point. He corroborated much of Mills 's evidence and went on to say, "Constable Williams kept chipping m and saying that the Chinaman said they were not for sale." More than that, Williams actually gave evidence for the defence and said that Mills told him that two or three people were complaining about the state of the bananas m the Chinaman's shop and asked him what he (Williams) was going to do m the matter. He went m and told the Chinaman that the Borough Inspector was complaining about the bananas. The Chinaman came into the shop and took some of the bananas out of the window. Mills wanted to buy them, but the Chinaman would not sell. The bananas were black outside, but WERE NOT ROTTEN. He (Williams) ate a "couple and gave another to Clement O'Brien to tryHe believed the bananas Mills took to Dr. Purdy were obtained from under the counter.

Williams next admitted that he had received instructions to facilitate the inspector m carrying out his duties. 'Notwithstanding Williams' evidence, the Bench promptly convicted the rotten fruit-seller a.nd fined him £1 and £4 12s 6d, or 14 days' imprisonment.

To say that Williams' attitude m the Ah Wing case is peculiar is to employ a rather weak and watery term. If anything, this peeler Williams set about to deliberately interfere with the Borough Inspector m the execution of his duty, and "Truth" wants to know why. Is Williams on more than speaking terms with the leprous alien ? It looks very much like it, to say the least of it, as Ah Wing, m the witness-box, with a smile that was child-like and bland, observed that Williams was no relation, but a friend, though not an extra good friend. The policeman Williams at anyrate comes within the category of the Chow-lover. How did it come about that he took up the cudgels on behalf of the Chow, who was exposing for sale, and actually selling, fruit of such a nature that it meant certain death for those who partook of it ? Here, at anyrate, is something for Commissioner Dinnie to consider. This constable admits that he received instructions to help the Borough Inspector. And how does he do it ? The evidence shows that, if anything,

HE SIDED WITH THE CHOW against the Inspector, but the Bench promptly declined to believe his evidence. There is something at the back of this case that needs further investigation, ~ *~ -