PATEA COURT SITTING

Taranaki Daily News, 20 January 1933, Page 3

PATEA COURT SITTING

POLICE AND CIVIL CASES.

THE OWNERSHIP OF A LOG.

Judgments by default were given as follows by Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., at the Patea Court yesterday: A. A. Carey v. L. G. Poingdestre, £l6 12s (£1 8s); Patea Borough v. L. G. Poingdestre, £4 (£1 6s 6d); Patea Harbour Board v. Garfield Wallace, £ll 15s 2d (£2 19s); W. T. Simmons v.,G. L. J. Willcox, £7 7s (£1 12s 6d); Star Garage Ltd. v. F. R. Nicholson, £3 19s 6d (£1 5s 6d); Haworth and Harris, Ltd. v. L. Putt, £l7 0s 3d (£1 ss); Haworth and Harris, Ltd. v. G. Miller, £l5 18s 8d (£1 ss); Haworth and Harris, Ltd. v. T. Broughton, £3 10s (10s); A. H. Langslow v. M. Michelson, £5 16s lOd (£1 10s 6d); Patea Hospital Board v. E. G. Kearney, £27 6s (£4 3s 6d); Alton Co-op. Dairy Co., Ltd. v. Moss Mickelson, £lO 8s 7d (£1 16s). In a tenement case J. A. McKenna v. John Mills, judgment was given for £6 4s and possession was ordered within 14 days. In the case of J. A. McKenna V. A. O. Cooper, judgment was given for £l2 8s and possession within 14 days. RIGHT TO. TAKE DRIFTWOOD. A claim brought by the two Broughton brothers against J. H. Baker for £5 in respect of two totara logs which the brothers had split into posts on the hanks- of the Whenuakura River occupied the Court for a considerable time. Mr. R. C. Rutherford appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. A. K. North for Baker. Wira Broughton gave evidence that on May 27 last he found the logs by the mouth of the Whenuakura River and spent four days splitting posts, obtaining 86 posts in all. Thirty-six of them were floated down the. river, and on witness returning to where the remaining 50 had been left in a stack he found them gone. Witness then interviewed one Crompton, a sharemilker for Baker, and found that the posts had been moved to the house.

Cross-examined by Mr. North witness estimated the distance of the log nearest the water from the high water mark to be about six feet. Witness admitted that after the logs had been floated down the stream to the beach it might appear that they had been found on the beach. , Walter Joseph Hutton, a labourer who had helped to split the logs, said that one of the logs was lying at an angle to the river on a bank about three feet high. The water washed the bottom of this bajjk. There were hundreds of logs lying about. The second' log was lower down in the, sand and would be covered by water at spring tide. When splitting the wood they had had to take off their boots , and socks. Crompton had told witness that Norman Tinney had once been prevented by Baker from carting posts over his property. ; Witness estimated the value of the timber as 2s per post. ’ s Cross-examined by Mr. North, witness said that floating the logs down the river; was the easiest way to get them put. . . . /'' ■ ' The next witness was Peter Te Waka, who said the Whenuakura had always had a boat on it at the pa; he had seen the boat 20 miles from the mouth. To Mr. North witness admitted the river was usually less than a chain wide; sdriietiines it was only half a chain. Mr. North for the : 'defence submitted that there was no case to answer. An attempt had been made to prove only one log was below high-water mark. He therefore asked for a nonsuit on the grounds that no affirmative evidence had been , given as to the situation of the posts above high water mark. The magistrate intimated that he would like to hear some evidence as to the positions of the logs in relation to the tide. , ■ ' ■ ' The owner of the property, James Harrison Baker, Hawera, said the logs had been brought down by the flood which carried away the Whenuakura railway bridge ten or twelve years ago. Recently witness had been there and it was easy to walk round the logs on the sand between the river and the place where the logs had been split. There were perhaps eight good logs still there. No permission had been given to anyone to take away logs for commercial purposes. In answer, to Mr. Rutherford witness said there were innumerable other lojV there btit they were merely firewood and not valuable.

Cyril Fitzpatrick Crompton said that during 5J years he had never'seen a tide come up to either log. “Legally navigable,” said Mr. Rutherford in' summing up, was a phrase that ought to be applicable to the Whenuakura River.

Mr. Salmon said there was no. doubt as to the right of any person to reduce to possession logs found in the water or just washed up. But according to the evidence the’present case was one where the logs had been on the. property. f°r. many, years. Judgment with costs was therefore given for defendant. LEVEL CROSSING SMASH. The dangerous Ball Road crossing was the scene of an accident on November 23 last year, resulting in Percy Horace Beale, a commercial' traveller, • being charged with an attempt to drive a motor-car across the line while it was not clear. Formal evidence as to the happening was given by E. R. Martin, enginedriver, Hawera. It was a dangerous crossing, he said, with very little view down the line. The . car had been smashed, mainly through being thrown against the compulsory stop notice. The magistrate took into consideration the fact that Beale had suffered loss and imposed a fine of £2 and costs. Annie Anson, Patea, ’ was fined 10s and costs for failing to procure a license for her wireless set within seven days of installation.