MAGISTRATE’S REGRETS
LENIENCY TO SHIP DESERTER PROBATION NOT DESERVED PA WELLINGTON, Aug. 22. “What a farce! Who gave it to you? ” asked Mr A. A. McLachlan, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, when an accused said in evidence that he had previously faced a charge of ship desertion and had been granted probation. The accused: I do not know. The magistrate: I suppose I did. The case was one in which Gerald Healey, aged 22, seaman, and Robert Foster Chilvers, aged 18, labourer and seaman, were charged with assaulting a waitress in a Wellington milk bar. The complainant said she had refused to serve the two men because they were “ too drunk ” and that milk and coffee had then been thrown over her. When Chilvers was giving evidence it was mentioned that he had previously faced a charge of ship desertion and had been granted probation. “This unfortunately is rather typical of a number of deserters to whom the court, in the hope of making decent citizens, gives probation,” commented the magistrate. “A nice pickle these deserters put the country in.” The accused were each fined £5.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 6
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187MAGISTRATE’S REGRETS Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 6
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