SAXOPHONE NOISE

NZ Truth, Issue 1080, 12 August 1926, Page 8

SAXOPHONE NOISE

Law Clerk's Innocent Enterprise (From "Truth's" Special Auckland Rep.) The brief history, of a valuable saxophone raised several interesting points m a criminal charge i which came before Judge Herdman and a jury at the Auckland Supreme Count last week. „ IT was while quaffing a bumper m a popular hostel m Auckland that Harold Gordon Stanley Wolfe met a man he had never seen before m his sweet life. ' . • There followed doubtless the customary exchange of •.■■ courtesies and talk of one thing led to another. Stephens was the name of Wolfe's" friend and he imparted to his bar acquaintance that he had a saxophone he would like to dispose of. ; Having occasionally availed himself of that indispensable institution which daily affords gratifying ' relief— -however temporary— to the financial stresses of the community, Wolfe (so he said)' agreed to "pop" the saxophone for what he could get for it. , Accordingly Wolfe tripped along to his business acquaintance m the Lombard ;IJoan Co. and asked what might be "raised" on a saxophone. The answer was given' with that fine diplomacy ■peculiar to his class by the assistant at the pawnshop to the effect that the advance would depend on the class of article "popped." So about a week later — accord* ing to the pawnbroker, but th& very next day according to Wolfe— he took along a brand-new saxophone and the financial world was relieved to the extent of £5. Wolfe, when he finalized his commission with the missing Stephens, was rewarded with £1 from the stake and the pawn-ticket, which he afterwards>,disposed of for the* sum of 10/---to the receiver and ( giver of pledges. Such was the essence of Wolfe's case, which he conducted himself and asked the jury to believe. | When Edward Raymond Eady, an employee of L. R. Eady and Co:, was m the box to identify the saxophone, valued, at £43, Wolfe asked a question or .two. . ; The witness admitted that there had been "no breaking or entering at the premises of the firm and that it would be difficult for anyone to waltz out of | the shop with the jazzy instrument concealed on his person. , At this point an interesting feature entered the case when Wolfe endeavored to find out how Eady's came to identify' the instrument. ■ Then it became clear that there is m Auckland a type of law clerk who bids fair to out-Wallingford Wallingford. Seeing the possibilities of a profitable deal, the budding legal luminary procured an option over the saxophone. Whether the option was registered m due .legal form was never made clear, but the law clerk dropped into I Eacly's one day to value the instrument testily, no doubt, with the view to a sale. . Then it .was that the witness Eady discerned a trade number he recognized and thereupon gladly identified the euphonious implement as being an unsold portion of his stock-in-trade. Such' were the problems which beset the minds of the chosen twelve, who very soon settled the matter by finding Wolfe guilty of receiving property at the time well knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Sentence was postponed.