LIQUOR AND LANGUAGE

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXVI, Issue 7901, 12 September 1929, Page 2

LIQUOR AND LANGUAGE

NEWCOMER TO DISTRICT GOES ASTRAY LOOKED SORRY IN COURT Warned by Constable Welch on Tuesday afternoon to get away home because he was In an intoxicated condition, a middle-aged married man, a stranger to the district, became very excited, and made use of an offensive word and caused a crowd to collect. As a result he found himself in the local lock-up, but was shortly afterwards bailed out in the sum of £2 by a friend who saw that he was sent to his home.

Yesterday morning the defendant, who looked very sorry for himself, and who kept saying that such a thing had never happened to ; him before, appeared before Messrs W. M, Wallnutt and J. Murray, J’s.P., charged with drunkenness and indecent language. Sergeant D. L. Calwell said that the man was in a very excited mood when told to go home. He was in the company of his wife and two young children, and used the word mentioned in the charge chiefly while addressing the canstable, causing more or less of a scene. Defendant was locked up more for his own protection than anything else, Nothing was previously known against him. Mr J. B. Beeche, for defendant, said that his client was a new arrival in the district, and had recently taken up a holding. He had no recollection of having used the language, though he remembered that a constable had spoken to him. The word used was not as serious as some one heard in the street every day, and, although that was no excuse, it might help the bench to view the matter in a more lenient light. Counsel also asked for an order for the suppression of publication of the name. The present proceedings had been.a warning to the defendant, and if the language had been grossly indecent the matter would have been different. Suppression of publication of the name would give him an opportunity to go straight. “We hope that this will prove a warning to you,” said the bench in imposing a line of £l and costs on the charge of having used indecent language. Defendant was convicted and discharged for drunkenness, and as he had his way to make in the district an order for the suppression 1 of the name was made.