Breach of the Bye-laws.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7660, 19 June 1896, Page 3

Breach of the Bye-laws.

Lan S. Simpson was to-day charged before Mr Booth, S.M., with having committed a breach of the Borough Council bye-laws by driving round a corner at other than a walking pace on Tuesday morning lost. Defendant pleaded not guilty. Michael Jennings said that on Tuesday morning last he saw defendant riding round the Masonic corner at a slow canter. R. D. B. Robinson, town clerk, also gave evidence. He quoted the bye-law of the Council under which the information . was laid, and also produced hia authority to prosecute for such offences. On Tuesday morning he saw Mr Simpson riding down Gladstone road. ■ When he got to the Masonio corner he cantered round near the kerbing without checking his horse's pace. Defendant : How long have you been olerk I—About1 — About five years. Had you previously been clerk to any other borough?— No. How old are you 1 His Worship said he did not see what that had to do with the case. Witness had produced his authority, and that was sufficient. In reply to further questions by defendant, witness said he bad Been other persons driving round the corners at a pace faster than a walk. He had summoned one other person. He did not think he had summoned every person he had seen cantering round corners. He was not Inspector of Nuisances. This closed the case for the prosecution. Defendant said that he. was a stranger and a visitor to Gisborne, and it was not a nice thing for him to be treated in this way. He thought he should havo got some intimation that there was such a bye-law in existence before being summoned. Iv a placo like Dunedin His Worship said it was admitted that a person could not plead ignorance as an excuse for having committed an offence. Defendant said he was aware of that. In Christohuroh or Dunediu there was a necessity for such a bye-law, but there waa no necessity for it here, and he did not expect there would be one in a " one-horse place like this." Ho did not think it was any inducement for a stranger to bring money to Gisborne and settle down and make the place better than it is, to be treated in the way he had been by the Borough Council. There were no people with experience of tho outside world here. Everybody one met had been in the place for 25 .years. Everybody hero " was like Topsy ; they have grown in the place." He considered that he was being very unjustly treated, and that the Borough Council were abusing their power. The present action was brought against him purely out of spite. In laying such an information the Town Clerk was degrading himself and bis office.

It was not the duty of the Town Clerk to perform such work, but of the Inspector of Nuisances. He had been a Mayor three times and had never previously been fined, and he thought it very hard that he should thus be publicly insulted. He thought His Worship ought to paaa the matter over. Of course now that his attention had been drawn to the matter he would in future be careful to observe the bye-law. His Worship said he did not think defendant had done any good to his case by abusing the Town Clerk and the Council for making the bye-law. The duty of the Town Clerk was to administer the bye-laws, and he was instructed to prosecute any person who offended them. If defendant committed a breach of the bye-laws he must expect to be brought up for it. The statement he had made regarding Mr Robinson was quite out of place. He was the person appointed by the Borough Council, and he had summoned defendant who had had committed a breach of the bye-laws, and defendant had sought to excuse himself because he was a stranger. Defendant was proceeding to say that he thought he should first have been cautioned, When His Worship said that if defendant wished to have a further opportunity to address the Court he might do so, but he (Hia Worship) was at present summing up and he would not be interrupted. Continuing, he said that it had been proved that defendant had committed a breach of the bye-laws iv going round a corner at a faster pace than a walking pace. That he " had been very hardly dealt with " and all that sort of cry, he "(His Worship) would take no notice of. Defendant would be fined 10a and costs of Court 9s and witness' expenses 7s, making a total of £1 6s.

Wesley Church Services. — Sunday next, June 21st : Gisborne 11, Mr Wharton Goldsmith ; Gisborne 7 and Waimata 11, Rev. J. Blight.— Advt;