YOUNG MAN'S MISTAKE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17176, 5 February 1930, Page 11

YOUNG MAN'S MISTAKE

A SERIOUS OFFENCE WHISKY SUPPLIED TO MAORI Pleading guilty to what was described as a serious charge, namely, supplying liquor to a Maori girl, Merwn Murray, 22, was lined'£;s and costs by Mr. P. H. Harper, S.M., in tho Police Court I his afternoon. Mur* ray, whose case arose out of the same set of circumstances as those, detailed in other prosecutions dealt with this morning, was charged with supplying whisky at Muriwai on January 10 to a female native, Kate Wyllie. Mr. S. V. Beaufoy appeared for the accused. "This man," said Senior-Sergeant Wade," supplied whisky to a girl not yet .18 years of age—not one drink. but a bottle, for which he received 10s, and from the evidence given by tho witnesses in the other cases he must have kept the 10s for himself. The girl went to a dance, where she got drunk ami made an exhibition of herself. Fortunately for her Constable Skinner saw her and instructed her friends to- look after her. The accused must have known what the effects of s ivin S whisky to this girl would be. He s is in a responsible position, being in charge of a bus, and he should he above doing a thing like this." , , . . Mr. Beaufov submitted that the girl was entirelv'to blame in respect To all the cases brought before the Court to-day, and it could be seen by the way she give her evidence ■ that she was lying, and that she was accustomed to*taking whisky, even though she was onlv IS. Every day in the week, the defendnnl was asked 1o do_ little things for the Maoris in tho district and ior the men engaged on the railway works. He was only 22, and he had no idea that he was doing wrong. He did not think that the girl wanted the whiskv for herself, but that she was taking it home for her father or someone else. The girl asked lain to get the whisky, and he inadvertently fell into a trap. " "The character of tho girl has nothing to do Mdth the offence of supplying liquor to a nativo," stud the magistral! '"The offence is one which must be regarded by the legislature as serious, in that the mnximum, penalty has been fixed at £SO. Ihe defendant says he was not aware that he was committing an offence, but that is no excuse. I hope that in he future h" will be careful not to supplyUqudT 1o any natives. The fact that he made a clean breast of the affair a in his favor, but the case; cannot be dismissed without a fairy substantial penally, and he will bo lined £5 mid CfO«t». ______*-.