MAYOR OF TOOWOOMBA TO PAY DAMAGES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 7

MAYOR OF TOOWOOMBA TO PAY DAMAGES

Cigarette Incident at Ball

FIREMAN AWARDED SUM OF £lO Bv Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received January 12, 1.10 a.m.) Brisbane, January 11. As a sequel to the cigarette incident at Toowoomba on December 3, when the Duke of Gloucester was requested by a fireman to cease smoking at the civic ball, William Buchanan, railway employee and voluntary fireman, to-day at the Toowoomba Court was awarded £lO damages with costs against James Douglas Annand, Mayor of Toowoomba, for assault and wrongful arrest. Buchanan, who had claimed £lOO damages, gave evidence that Annand approached him in the kitchen and called him a "rotten, disloyal mongrel,” adding. "Fancy a thing like you telling the Duke to put out his cigarette. You are not fit to wipe his boots.”

“Naturally,” said Buchanan, "I called him a liar.” Fireman Paterson then appeared and said it was he who requested the Duke to extinguish his cigarette, explaining in apologetic tones that the risk of fire was too great, to which the Duke replied : "Is that so?” and extinguished the cigarette. Annand gave his version of the affair and said he might have called Paterson a mongrel, bqt denied giving plaintiff in charge. He added that both Buchanan and Paterson had adopted a belligerent attitude.,