HORSE “RESCUED.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 708, 8 March 1933, Page 7

HORSE “RESCUED.”

Magistrate Hears Unusual Case. father, son and ranger. An unusual case came before Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning, when a defendant declared that a ranger had taken a horse out of a section and impounded it. There was a complication, as defendant and his son had “ rescued ” the horse from the ranger later as he w f as on the point of taking it away to the pound. Mr Loughnan prosecuted. George Straw (Mr Quigley) pleaded not guilty to charges of letting a horse wander, and of rescuing an impounded horse. The ranger, Walter Thielman, said that on January 28 he found defendant’s horse wandering in Whittington Avenue. He was taking it away when the defendant and his son came and demanded the horse. Witness refused to let them have it, but in the end they managed to get the horse away from him. To Mr Quigley, witness denied taking the horse from a section. In evidence, the defendant denied that the horse was left on the road. He put it in a section, in which he had permission to graze the horse. “ The ranger took the horse out of the section,” said defendant, Mrs Mary Cronin, of Whittington Avenue, who saw the ranger through her front windows, said that she went out to the gate, and saw no horse wandering on the road. The horse must have been taken from a section. Frederick Straw, son of the defendant, corroborated his father’s evidence. “ Can there be a rescue when a horse is illegally impounded? ” asked the Magistrate. “ From Mrs Cronin’s evidence I am satisfied that Thielman went beyond his jurisdiction.” There was a short adjournment while the Magistrate and counsel looked into the position concerning the “ rescue ” of a horse illegally seized. Finally both charges were dismissed, with costs to the defendant.