LOST MOTOR-CAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 304, 19 September 1919, Page 3

LOST MOTOR-CAR

REWARD OFFERED AND MONEY CLAIMED BY A LAD

At tho Magistrate's Court yesterday, Mr. W. ,ti. Riddell, S.M., _ heard a claim for a reward of i£o brought by a lad named Peter M'Lean against D. S. Patrick. Mr. i. Scott appeared for tho plaintiff and his father, Henry M'Lean, and Mr. It-. Kennedy for the defendant, Op August i, Mr. D. S. Patrick advertised in The Domimon offering a reward of .£2O to the person who would furnish him with sucli information as would lead ■to tho recovery of a Studebaker motor-car which had been removed without permission from his private garage at 14 Hawker Street, on tho previous Saturday evening. It appeared that Peter M'Lean,. a lad 14 years of age, saw a car standing in Maurice Terrace, and communicated with the Taranaki Street Police Station, and the polico passed on tho information to Mr. Patrick. The action was brought _tcr recover the amount of tho reward offered.

1 The defence was that the whrreabout3 [ of the car had been communicated to j the owner before any word was received ,in respect to-its discorery by the lad M'Lean; in fact, that possession had actually been taken ■before the message was, , received, and that the name of-the per- , son who had removed the car was known '. at 10 a.m. on August i. Peter M'Lean, the plaintiff, a news-- [ paper runner hoy.'ga.ve evidence to seeing tho ear standing in Maurice Terrace, and reporting- the matter to the police. Witness asked Mr. Patrick for the reward, and the- latter said witness would get some of it. Constable Pearce said.that the boy M'Lean reported tho finding of. the ear on August 4, at about 1 p.m., and witness 1 rang up Patrick and gave him the in- ■ formation that the boy had given. This closed tho case for the plaintiff. Douglas S. Patrick said that on Sunday, August 3, ho missed tho ear from the ! garage, and ho immediately rang up the detective office and reported the,loss. He : received a message from the.detective oflifce about (i p.m. on Sunday that tho . ear had been seen in the Ngnliauranga . Gorge, and later he received information : from another source that the car was '. seen going to Lower Ilutt.- 'The next day ! a Mr. Dav came to witness and told him '■ that he had seen the car in the posJ sossion of a certain individual; Witness , gave the information to the detective office, and witness said ho was going to recover the car, but the detectives said that they would attend, to the matter. - Witness ,q:ot a ring from the Taranaki , Street Police Station about 1 o'clock on i Monday telling him that his car was in Maurice 1 Terrace, and, further, that the information had come from Peter M'Lean. Later Mrs. Patrick came in and witness told her where the car was to be found, and she said that she already had tho car. When the lad called to claim the reward, witness explained to him that ho did not quite know how he stood in the matter, for there were others mter'ested. James S. Patrick, brother of the last witness, said that on Monday about noon he received a telephone message to say that tho car was in Maurice Terrace. It was a man's voice, but tho speaker would not give his name. Mrs. Patrick came in scon afterwards and witness told her nbimt the car and she said she would go out and see it. She left the shop a few minutes after 12 o'ed'ock. Eleanor Patrick, wife of the defendant, paid that on the Monday in question sho arrived at the shon at noon, and on arrival witness was told by J. S. Patrick that, her husband's car was. in Maurice Terrace. Witness immediately went to the localitv and saw the car, which was too dirty 1 to drive, and witness made no attempt to start tho machine. George Dav, a builder, savl lie cal'ed at M'v. Patrick's shop on Monday and (rare him information respectinir his car. Witness raw the car with three young men in it at Mini mar. Thii would bo about 10.30 a.m. on Sunday. He knew or" of the men in. the car will.

To Mr. Scott: Ho had made no claim for .the reward, and had not upproached !Mt. I'd trick in resnect to the matter. I His Worship, after reviewing the evidence nt some length, nonsuited the plaintiff, but siingestwl that if no claim was made by the- unknown person tho lad should receive some compensation. Mr. Kennedy said it was tlie defendant's intention to reward th& '-id, but objected to do pto under threat. Mr. Kennedy "intimated that he would not ask for costs.