Distress Warrant Extraordinary.

Opunake Times, Volume IV, Issue 170, 18 February 1896, Page 3

Distress Warrant Extraordinary.

At the Box Hill Police Court the other day (the Melbourne Argus re ports) a boy, aged seven, named Bertie Brooks, who was recently fined 20s and 2s 8d costs for having trespassed on a railway, the property of the Victorian Railway Commissioners, in contravention of section 7 of the Railways Act, was summoned at the instance of the acting clerk of the petty sessions to show cause why he should not be committed to prison, a warrant of distress having been issued and returned unsatisfied. Mr Ebsworth appeared for the defendant, and raised several technical objections, and stated that the issuing of a distress warrant against a boy of seven was a farce. Major Hanby (Chairman). —We think that if your client’s parents paid the fine instead of paying you a fee it would be better..

Mr Ebsworth.—Well,' I don’t see that I am called upon to state so, but as a matter of fact I am acting partly out of sympathy, and gratuitously, so far as these proceedings are concerned. In the previous case the parents were quite justified in retaining me, as the charge, until altered, was a serious one, that of attempting to wreck a train. The defendant’s parents are not able to pay the fine, and I submit that there is no obligation upon them to do so, Major Hanby.—Very well; put the defendant’s father in the box. Mr Ebsworth (warmly)— I shall do nothing of the kind. He is no party to these proceedings and I have closed my case. Major Hanby—Very well. We’ll call him, Mr Ebsworth—lf you do it will be under a strong protest from me. Major Hanky—Very well. We’ll note your objection. Defendant’s father then went into the box, and was cross-examined by the chairman as to his means, but he maintained that he got nothing, and was earning nothing. The Chairman said the witness had given his evidence very unsatisfactorily and in any other court would have been committed. The defendant would have to go to prison for seven days if the fine was not paid; but the warrant would not be issued for a month to give bis parents an opportunity of paying.