SUPPLYING OF LIQUOR

Putaruru Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1231, 22 May 1947, Page 4

SUPPLYING OF LIQUOR

INCIDENT IN PARK Murray Bobett appeared before Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., on Monday, charged with supplying liquor to natives in a proclaimed area. Defendant, represented by Mr. J. Grahame, pleaded not guilty. Consl table R. Dunn stated that on May 3 he accompanied Constable T. Cotter to Glenshea Park, which has been only recently bulldozed, levelled and sown with new grass. The gate to the park is kept locked. Witness found the gate open and on driving along the road to the rear olf the dressing shed noticed a motor truck parked between the shed and a hu't used by the men working on the park. As the police car pulled up and' witness got out, he heard someone cry out: “G,o for your life —here’s the police.” The truck started up as witness ran forward, and drove down over the newlyformed terraces. Witness called to the driver to stop, and when he failed to do so, jumped on to the running board and told the driver to stop. The truck was 1 at this stage half down over the terraces, on an angle, and was being driven forward. Two Maoris on the back of the truck fell off, and the vehicle almost capsized. Witness heard a crash of breaking glass, and finally at the end of .the terraces the truck pulled up. Witness found two sugar bags of beer in the cab of the truck, defendant claiming that they were his. There were four Maoris with. defendant, and all four were under the influence of liquor. Defendant was sober, and smelt only slightly of liquor. When questioned defendant claimed that all the liquor was his. He said he wag going to a party. On being asked what he meant by breaking into the; park, Balbett had maintained that the gate was not locked, and that he had gone to the wrong place. The police took the liquor under protest from defendant and the Maoris. They found a carton of beer lying on the flat part of the lawn at the bottom of the terraces, and about six yards further back a wooden crate of bottles of liquor which had fallen off the truck. The following morning witness revisited the scene and found a bottle half full of beer about a chain and a half in a northerly direction of the ground. The bottle ivas imbedded in the ground where it had apparently been thrown. It was in the same direction where Constable Cotter had pursued one of the Maoris who had run away. Cross-examined, Constable Dunn stated that there were three dozen bottles of beer in the crate, a ■ dozen in each of the bags, and a part of a dozen in the carton, making a total of five and part of a dozen bottles. Constable T. Cotter corroborated much of the evidence given by the previous witness. He stated that he had received a telephone call shortly before eight o’clock on the night in question informing him that a party of drunken Maoris had broken into the park. Whilst Constable Dunn was chasing the truck witness noticed a Maori running in the northerly direction of the park. He ran across and headed the Maori off, caught him and took him back to the truck. The four Maoris were all under the influence of liquor. Defendant had stated that all the liquor was hisWhen the police stated that they were taking the liquor defendant and one of the Maoris became abusive. Several days later defendant had called and had told the police that some of the liquor had been bought for some other men at the mill where defendant worked. ... Mr. Grahame suggested that the police had not proved defendant had supplied liquor to the Maoris. Murray Bobett stated that he had arrived in Putaruru at 1.30 p,m. with a load of timber, and at 5.30 p.m., after unloading, had gone to the bottle store at Putaruru and-had purchased the beer. He bad also gene and had three glasses of beer, He had brought some Maoris in from the mill with him. He had met them again just after 6 p.m., and they had asked him to take’ them to Hornsby’s place. He did not know Putaruru. very well and had driven through the gate. When Inside, the people there told him he should not be there with his truck- lie was driving a logging truck with a 25-foot trailer. He could not back to get out and had had to ;go straight ahead. It was when he was doing this that Constable Dunn had jumped on the running-board and had told him to stop. He had bought the beer for himself and for two mates to hold a party to celebrate an anniversary of his .return to New Zealand from overseas. The beer to his knowledge had not been opened, and he had at the time pointed this out to the police, they

admitting it was so. He did not abuse the police but had merely asked what right they had to take the beer. He had not given the Maoris any beer, nor had they bought any of it. Cross-examined, Bobett again denied that he had abused the police. He stated that he had bought a fourdozen crate of beer, a carton of beer and two sugar bags of beer. He had thought the police were referring to all the beer and not Just to the sugar bags when they had admitted that the beer had not been opened. The police produced the carton, which contained nine bottles of beer and tbe broken remains of another bottle Defendant could not acount for the other bottles missing from the carton. Constable Cotter pointed out that in the four bottles in the carton there were two different brands of beer. As a carton contains only one brand, defendant could not acount for the other make. I. Burns, a mate of defendant, stated that he had given Bobett £3 to buy some beer with on the day in question. They had intended throwing a party. K. Shute, another friend, stated that he also had given defendant £3 to get some beer the same day. The magistrate, summing up, outlined the facts of the case and stated that defendant’s story was not true and proved this by pointing out several discrepancies in it. The men had gone to the park to have a party and were having it when the police arrived. Bobett had stated that he had gone there shortly after 6 p.m., and yet it was almost 8 p.m. when the police arrived. Maoris were present and were under the influence of liquor. The fact that there were several brands among the bottles in the carton proved that the beer had not been got at the some place at the same time. Bobett wag convicted and fined £lO and costs, and the liquor was to be confiscated.