OUT OF LUCK

NZ Truth, Issue 1127, 7 July 1927, Page 9

OUT OF LUCK

+ Thome's Memory Was " A Blank (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Rep.) If Alfred John Willianv Thome, of Station Road, Papatoetoe, could have given a better description of the watch-house at the Auckland police station— as it appeared to him when he found himself deposited there by Constable Smith— ( he might not have been, convicted and fined £20 for being drunk while m charge of a car. NOT only was his recollection of the watch-house very vague, but the number of policemen he had seen there on duty was not -within the scope of his memory. * ' Gone also into the misty corridors of oblivion was the conversation that transpired during his evening's sojourn as a guest of the Crown. But, Constable Smith remembered what had been said, particularly a little remark made by Thome when he was asked if he. wanted to see a doctor. "Not on your life!" sounded/ very much as though the arrested motorist had not sufficient confidence m his sobriety to put it to the test of a medical man. • , The police produced a number of witnesses' to say that defendant's car appeared to be- properly out of control and also to declare that, Thome's unsteady gait, his thickness of speech and breath coincided 'with" their description of one who is "blotto." / For the defendant, Lawyer A. M. Gould put up a strong case and if numbers had counted his small army of witnesses - would have given him a. decisive victory. Lawyer Gould admitted that he had before him' > a colossal task to prove that his client was quite sob-har," but submitted that the evidence of various witnesses^who had.met Thome during the afternoon, together with the medical testimony, was sufficient to shatter- the charge. r < It wasn't, however, and a fine of £20 followed, with costs to the amount of £3 7s. S.-. " - \ I