MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 98, 20 January 1920, Page 2

MAGISTRATE'S COURT

POLICE AND MAINTENANCE CASES. Mr. E. Page, S.M., presided over a sitting of the Magistrate's Court yesterday morning.

Four first offenders convicted of drunkenness were dealt with in the usual lenient wanner. Charles Percy Lemon, with one previous conviction, was fined £\. John Shine, also with one previous conviction, was also fined JEI, in default three days' imprisonment. A taxi driver named Jack Austin, who was arrested for being drunk while in charge of a. taxi, was ordered to pay 10;., the amount of his bail.

A fine of .CF in default fourteen days* imprisonment, was. inflicted on Anders Axel Christian Carlson for using obscene language, and for being drunk he was fined 55., ill default twenty-four' hours' imprisonment.

Jfichard Andrew Byrne, who was arrested some time ago and was sent to tha Hospital, from which institution he escaped, was yesterday charged with drunkenness, with escaping from legal custody, and with damaging blankets valued at 13s. fid., tho property of the New Zealand Government. Byrne said he could not remember the circumstances, and when he left the Hospital it was to satisfy his craving for drink. On the charge of drunkenness ho was fined 10s., in dafnult two days' imprisonment, for escaping from custody he was ordered to come up for sentence when called upon within 12 months, and was' ordered to pay 17s. (id. medical expenses, and he was further ordered to pay 13s. fid., the amount of Iho damage to tho blankets, the alternative being twenty-one days' imprisonment.

Hurry- T. Edwards was charged with' being a rogue and a vagabond in that ho -was found by night in the Mount Cook Infant School.- It was explained by SubInspectoi' Emerson that the defendant was an inmato of the Oliiro Home and cleared out from that institution. When lie- was discovered he was. drunk and had liquor in his possession. The accused offered a plausible excuse and admitted that he had acted foolishly.. He was convicted ami ordered to come up for sentonce when called upon within twelve "1110111113, and to return to tho Uliiro Home. .

When the s.s. Port Alma was in Lyttelton in April of last year a fireman named Thomas Loftus left tho vessel and went to Christchurch, "where, according to his own admission, lie spent three days drinking and all his money disappeared.

■Mr. G, Watson, who-appeared-for tho shipowners, stated that the vessel was in New Zealand last October, and tho defendant made no application to bo returned on board. A warrant was issued for his arrest in April last year, and was executed n few days ago. The defendant said after the vessel sailed he went to work in the coal mines, and later oamo to Wellington and had applied several times- at the Marine .Superintendent's office to secure a ship. ■Ldftus was convicted of deserting from liis ship and ordered to pay court costs 10s., and expenses totalling .i'-l Is., in default seven days' imprisonment. A remand far a week was granted in the case of Darnel Stephen Foley, chawed with committing an indecent assault upon a girl six years of age at llataitni. Hail was iixed at .£2OO and one surety of .£•200.

Two youths named Frederick Paletlo and, Jack KirklandMValt were jointly charged with the theft of a Tiuick motorcar, valued at ,£."30(1, tlio properly of Eric Emerson Mnbin.

Chief-Detective Ward, in asking for a remand for a week, slated that further charges would lie brought against the accused, lie asked that, hail should lio fixi'd at a substantial amount.

The remand was granted, and bail was fixed in each case at .0250 and one surely of .€250. ■ MAINTENANCE CASES.. Alfred John Heath was ordered to pay •Vis. per week towards the maintenaneo of his wife and child, and William Dalton was also ordered to pay :15s. per week in support of his wife, nnd child. For disobeying a maintenance order and allowing arrears of .CM 10s. to accumulate, Patrick Campbell was sentenced to" one "month's imprisonment, tho warrant to lie suspended so long as ho pays 7s. fid. per week, the amount of the original order, and 12s. fd. per week off the arrears.

Jane Robertson, for whom Mr. J. M. Bale appeared, sought a separation from her husband. James Robert*)]!, represented by Mr. P. W. .Tnrkson. After heariwr evidence, II is Worship granted separation, and fixed the maintenance at ,C 1 per week, and the complainant was allowed £i for past maintenance.