KNIFE DISPLAY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20455, 7 November 1934, Page 10

KNIFE DISPLAY.

Seaman Threatened Group of Men. TRAFFIC-INSPECTOR’S ACTION. Brandishing a knife at a group of men, and announcing that he would “go for anybody'” who came near him, Michael Walsh, a seaman, 44 years of age, attracted the attention of Traffic-Inspector G. L. Kay', on nearby. The inspector disarmed him.* and Walsh was taken to the Police Station. This morning. Walsh appeared before Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., charged with behaving in a threatening manner in Moorhouse Avenue, and with carrying a dangerous weapon, a sheath knife, without lawful purpose. He pleaded guilty to both charges. Senior-Sergeant Fox said that at 6.10 last evening, Traffic-Inspector Kay was on duty at the corner of Moorhouse Avenue and Lincoln Road, when he noticed a large group of men standing near a bowser on the corner. Walsh was standing in the middle of this group, waving the knife about shoulder high, and shouting that he would “go for anybody ” who came near him. One of the men in the group showed signs of having been in trouble, but it was evidently not the knife that was to blame. Refused to Give it Up. After a few minutes, Walsh returned the knife to its sheath. The traffic-in spector then approached and told Walsh that it was illegal to carrv the weapon, and asked that Walsh should give it up. This he refused to do. Walsh then walked off down Moorhouse Avenue. lie was under the influence of drink, and, taking advantage of a pause when Walsh stopped to hitch up his pants, Inspector Kav secured the knife. With the assistance of another inspector, they got the man into a car and took him to the Police Station. “ A man with drink should not be carrying a knife round the city', especially at a time like this,” the SeniorSergeant added. W alsh said that a man had tripped him, and he took the knife out to frighten him away. He had not intention of using the knife, which, as a seaman, he was accustomed to wearing. After the Senior-Sergeant had remarked that W alsh had had three previous convictions, the Magistrate asked how much money he had. “ The sum of 6d,” replied the senior-sergeant. W alsh had in his possession a number of shoelaces, which, he said, he was going to sell.” The Magistrate, in ordering Walsh to come up for sentence if called upon within three months on the first charge, and convicting and discharging him on the second, praised the conduct of

Inspector Kay r . “It was praiseworthy in every respect,” he said. “The inspector did his duty as a citizen.”