MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21994, 20 June 1941, Page 8

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

YESTERDAY'S CASES Mr H. Morgan, S. M., presided at a sitting of the Timaru Magistrate's Court yesterday when several cases were dealt with. William Kyle, for casting offensive matter in a public place, was fined £l/10/0 and costs 10'-. Charles William Knowles did not appear to answer a charge of operating a motor vehicle without possessing ’a warrant of fitness, and was fined £3 and costs 12/-. Eric William Sexton pleaded guilty to a charge of wilfully damaging an electric light standard, valued at 12 6, the property of Helen B. King. Two similar charges were preferred against Gordon Andrew Smith, who also pleaßed guilty. Senior-Sergeant D. J. Hewitt said that the defendants were members of a gang of four of five, some of whom had already appeared in the Children's Court. Four nights running they had damaged the electric light standard. One night Smith pulled the standard down and bent it. and the following night, noticing that it had been straightened. Tie pulled it right down and broke it off. Vandalism of that type could not be allowed to continue. Sexton was fined £1 and costs 10'and ordered to pay 4/- toward the cost of repairing the standard, and Smith was fined £1 and 10/- costs on each charge and ordered to pay 4'B towards the cost of repair. "Let that be a lesson to you. and perhaps it will be a deterrent to others,” remarked the Magistrate. Charles Thomas Stewart, licensee of the Shamrock Hotel, pleaded guilty to selling liquor after hours and to keeping his premises dpen after hours for the sale of liquor. In view of the plea of guilty, Senior-Sergeant Hewitt asked leave to withdraw the second charge, which the Court consented to. Outlining the facts, the SeniorSergeant said that Sergeant J. Crowley and a constable visited the hotel about 9 p.m. on May 31. and found tlie licensee and a number of men in the bar. The licensee had been straightforward about the matter, and admftted that he had made a mistake. It was his first attempt at hotel-keeping, and up till then he had conducted the house well. The Court: Had the men had liquor? The Senior-Sergeant: Apparently the Sergeant arrived at the psychological moment, for there was no sign of drinking to any extent. The Court: They would have got liquor? The Senior-Sergeant: They would have got it all right. They did not go there to look at the pictures on the I walls. Defendant was fined £5 and costs 10/-. Trevor Ainge. Charles Davidson, Gordon Alexander Gillespie. William McPhedram. Thomas Mitchell and Jack Stack, who were each charged with being on the licensed premises of the Shamrock Hotel after hours, were each fined £l/10 0 and costs 10 -.