HOUSING INQUIRY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 107, 22 May 1937, Page 7

HOUSING INQUIRY

•Press Assoclation.)

. ■ 1 wm w ■ Entry Refused to Officer FIRST CASE IN DOMINION

(By Telegiaph-

' AUCKLAND; May 21. What was stated to be the first prosecution. in- New "Zealand undos tho Housing Suryey Act was heard w.the Lolice Couft tfiis morning, when Joseph Bowden, of Mount Eden, was charged . on surnmons with the obstructiou of an officer (in the course of his duty. MA Terry, who prosecuted on behalf of the informant, Percy Jabez Crump, supervisor of -the housing. siirvey for the Mount Eden Borough Couucil, "said that when notice was delivered to the defendaut on .May 7 he said he would not- allow anyone to go through his house. When the two officers retSrnod on May 11 the defendant demanded to know their business and absolutely refused fo all'ow them to inspcct the house. He 'ordered them away, Btating: "Lwill throw you out and if you bring a policeman I will throw him, out too. ' ' Counsel for the defendaut said that Bowden was a man with a hasty -temper and was under the impression that the sanctity of an Englishman's home still obtained. He used no physical force. "Apparently he is. a little oldfashioned, but that is np excuse for his. attitude," paid the Magistrale, Mr. C, B. Orr- Walker, who fined the defendant £1 and ordered him- to pay the solicitor's fee. "By imposing -this small fine," jtho Magistrate added, "I do not want the publ'ic to think that this offence 5 s a trivial one. It is nothing of the eort. ' '