TWO ACCIDENTS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 139, 29 June 1937, Page 6

TWO ACCIDENTS

Maori Sentenced To Imprisonment LICENCE CANCEULED (.From Our Own Correspondent.j WAIROA, Last Night. ' A Maori named Sonny Mataira was charged at the Court on Friday afternoon on the following counts:— (1) With having on May 8 being dr„unk while in charge of a car ; (2) haying | driven a car in A reckless manner; (3) using obscene language; . (4) committing ,a breach of his prohibition order; (5) damaging a telegraph pole, valued at £3 11/9, the property of the New Zealand Government. , Sergeant Clark prosecuted and Mr. F. H. Jones appeared for the accused, who pleaded not guilty to all charge3 except that of breaking his prohibitioji order. ' - Sergeant Clark ' stated that all the charges arose out of the one set of circumstances, and might be taken together, a course to which counscl agreed. , f J. E. Foden, of Waikokopu, etated that on the day in question he was coming anto Wairoa in his car with his wife and two children. About 6.20, when coming down the. hill east of Te Uri he met a car half:way, and pulled in as far as he " could to the watertable on his proper side. In a f ew moments the car driven by accused struck Witness 's car, damaging the mud-guard. Witness got out and met the other driver, and asked him what he meant, and he replied that "witness was in the wrong, being on. the wrong side of the road. An argument then ensued. Accused was staggering about, and smelt of liquor. Witness then left and did not see accused agam. J. H. Elwood and E. Nye, .of Kopuawhara, passengers in accused car, also gave evidence. The former stated that after the first aceident- they continued for about tWo miles, when they struck a telegraph pole Witness was "knoeked out," as was his wife, and he saw accused lying on the grass, .seemingly in an ' linconscious- condition. C. M. McKenzie, another passenger in accused 's car, gave it as a cause for the accident ' that accused went to eleep. . Constable Huston said that the car went on 16 yards after striking the pole," and judging by the way the pole, which was six inches by seven inciifes, was broken at the top and the bottom, the speed must have been great, There was no loose metal on the drivin'g side. The accused gave lengthy evidence detailing his movements about town on May 8 at the football mateli and before leaving town a little after 6 p.m. He did not go near the hotel. - The lights oi Foden 's car, on the first hill dazzled him, and they arranged about the damage, which was slight to Foden 's car and none to that of witness 's. Tho only drink he had on the way was a 1' ew mouthfuls out of a part of a bottle of beer. At the corner where the accident oecurred his sleeve caught in the door, and while tugging at it to get it out the can ran off. He was going at 18 or 20 miles an hour. His Worship poined out the seriousness of having two aceidenta in two or three miles. No sober man wouid have had the second accident, and it was evident he was a man who should not bo on the road. On the first charge he would be imprisoned for one month, and his licence cancelled for two years. On the charge of reckless driving he would be convicted and discharged. For obscene language he would be sentenced to imprisonment for seven days, corfcurrent. For breach of his prohibition order, he would be convicted and discharged, and on the last charge, reckless dr-iving resulting in damage tp a telegraph pole," he was ordered to make o-pod the damage, £3 11/9.