ARREST OF MAN AFTER MEETING.

Western Star, 14 October 1938, Page 3

ARREST OF MAN AFTER MEETING.

MINISTER'g l- RS?LY TO MR HARGEST.

MOTORIST IN COURT AT RIVERTON.

WELLINGTON, October 11

"My attention has been drawn to a statement made by Mr J. Hargest, M.P. for Awarua, appearing in your issue of Friday, October 7,. accusing me of having a man arrested for drunkenness because he interjected at my meeting at Riverton," says a statement issued by the Minister of Public Works (tho Hon. R. Scrapie). "This is absolutely incorrect. It is true that I ordered a man out of my meeting because he was behaving in a disordejly manner. "Fully an hour and a-half after this incident I was walking to my hotel ivith some friends when a man in an obviously intoxicated condition walked past me and staggered into a motorcar. There was a constable nearby and, in keeping with my attitude towards drunken motor drivers, I urew his attention to the fact that a man who appeared to me to be under the influence of liquor had taken charge of a motor-car, telling him the best thing he could do was to have a look at this man. I did not give him in charge; I left that t 0 the judgment of the constable. I had not the faintest idea that this was the man whom 1 ordered out of my meeting, and 1 "was not aware what action followed. "Since Mr Hargest made, this statement I have looked into the matter. Evidently tho constable was of the opinion that the man was intoxicated and arrested him. He sent for a doctor to make an examination and I have before me the doctor's certificate from the .police file which definitely states that as a result of his examination he was of opinion that the man was definitely under the influence of liquor and the degree of intoxication was sufficient to make him unsafe to drive a motor-car. If this is challenged the doctor's certificate on the police files can be examineu'. The case was subsequently dismissed by the Magistrate because of the fact that there was a degree of doubt as the Court was informed the defendant had been eight years in Malay and had suffered with malaria fever."