CYCLISTS MAKE EXCUSES TO S.M.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17864, 4 June 1926, Page 9

CYCLISTS MAKE EXCUSES TO S.M.

FEW, HOWEVER, ARE CONSIDERED GOOD

Excuses good and otherwise, received an airing at the Magistrate s C ourt to-day, when a large batch of cyclists were charged with cycling at night without lights. Mr 11. A. Young, S.M-, heard the excuses. "Did you get the job?" asked the Magistrate of one offender. “Yes, your Worship." “Fined 20s and costs, was the verdict. The offender had stated that he had been out looking for work. When asked by the Magistrate why he did not light his lamp he said he had no matches. “My lamp was pinched. I have not been working for the last four weeks, but T work on the wharf when there's anything doing,” said another. ‘‘ss hv didn't you push the bicycle?” queried the Magistrate. The offender did not answer, and the verdict was os and costs. ' “Have you anything to ask the constable?” the Magistrate asked of a youth who said he had an elecrtic dynamo for his lamp. ‘‘l've had two arguments with the constable already,” was the reply. “I struck the constable on the New Brighton bridge and got quite a surprise,” said a lightiess one. "I didn’t know that a light was needed before six o’clock, and I was caught at about a quarter to.” The police stated that sundown was at 4.44 p.m. on that day, and the surprised one did not escape the Court fine. A man who said he had a family of six children, and was delayed by other persons as well a£ 'the constable, on his cycle trip from Papanui to New Brighton. was mulcted in the payment of costs only. One loquacious offender addressed the Court on how a constable should accost a lampless citizen. “I might say at this juncture (and the constables will take it very kindly from your 55Torship),” she said, “that constables should bear in mind that in pulling up such men as I they are not accosting criminals. There is a pleasant way of doing it, so as not to upset the mental equanimity.” The Magistrate advised the speaker that things would be all right if he remembered that there was always a constable ready when he was without a light. “sVhat do you do.?" he asked. The reply was delightfully vague. “I am associated with business interests in the City, and I suppose I can be considered more or less my own master.” This may not have applied to domestic interests, for he said there might have been some unpleasantness at home had he wheeled his cycle instead of riding it, so he had got the trouble in another direction. “How many humans would have wheeled it?” he asked the Magistrate. He had a tin of carbide with him, but his lamp was at home. lie was just one evening too late. The Magistrate: I suppose you cycled right out from the City. The Offender: I wouldn't say that. The Magistrate: Fined 20s and costs.