TOLD THE MAGISTRATE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1927, Page 4

TOLD THE MAGISTRATE

I.OX I MIX, April 10. | Tame rabbits and the cinema al'O the twin obsessions of John Henry llob.sun, a 20-years-old youth who lias never worked in his life. He is crazy on the cinema, and when he is short of money lie goes rabbit-hunting in other people's hutches. When arrested ill the bird market he had a collection of two Belgian hares. one Dutch rabbit, and one English rabbit, which he sold. The rabbits went into a park attendant’s pot. to the horror of their owner, who had reared them as pets, but the Belgian hares survived in the shop of a live stock dealer. .fohit Henry will go to Borstal it suitable, and if not he will leave his happy hunting grounds for a long term in prison | The boyhood of Hugh Miller has not been so admirable as that ol his name- ( sake of schooldays memory, for instead of collecting hooks lie has assisted lour | other out-of-work youths to iiillcct | sheet lead fro the church of St. Mary the Virgin. Snpl. Hutchinson said the police wished to collect, the, receiver m the stolen property, who is missing, so Hugh Miller and company were remanded to await developments.

Frederick McNeil is a coloured mail who drinks like a .Scotsman, makes love like an Irishman, and steals like Tails the Welshman, who was also a thief. and the combination cost him ill.

When the coal strike began last May Frederick Heal, a young husband and father, decided that he could not alfoi'd the luxury of a, wife and child, so he went hack to his mother, and with his mother he has remained, while the guardians looked alter his wile ami child. Karning C 3 Os oil a week, Frederick thought ho had solved the problem of lmw to he prosperous though married, hut henceforth lie will have to contribute TCs a. week to his wife, whom lie had almost forgotten.

Cemeteries do not agree with Mary Coxton. and churchyards have a depressing influence on Thomas Ilines. Mary complained that the graves made her miserable, and Thomas, realising with Bacon that to a lonely man faces are hut a gallery of pictures, sought solace in St. John’s churchyard, which made him worse. Both Mary and Thomas .sought the same alcoholic remedy and paid the same line —1 Os each.

After a jolly evening with friends a timber merchant entered his car waiting outside his office iust ns a stillroom maid and her girl friend were discussing silk stockings shown in a hosiery shop window. Two minutes alter starting the engine the timber merchant and liis car joined the two girls on the pavement, and the off rear wheel of the car showed an ungallant curiosity in the left ankle of the stillroom maid, who promptly fainted. Her ankle was only slightly grazed as a result of the collision, hut as she said to her girl friend: “Meeting a strange motor-car on the pavement is enough to upset anybody.’’

The timber merchant was taken to the police station, where it was found that while he was sufficiently sober as a pedestrian, lie was too much under the influence of drink to he allowed to drive a- motor ear, a degree of intoxication that cost him £2(> and the automatic suspension of his driving license for .12 months.

Albert t.ho watchmaker insisted that had only one beer on Saturday night. “A glass or a gallon!'’’ softly inquired flic chairman. “Just one glass, and then .1 had a fit,’’ replied Albert. “Had a lit and fell on the back of my head.’’ “Did he liavo a fit!'” solicitously asked .Mrs Lee.

‘‘He did not.” firm!' replied the arresting constable. ‘ lie had spent all liis money on drink and be was trying to .sell a twopenny packet of cigarettes to get his car fare home.” “W|o are trying to convert this young man,” •inmmnced a Salvation Army officer. ‘He lias been emu: v to our meetings bo twelve months and recently be showed signs of come: - sion. Me was going splendidly until Saturday night, when he seems t > have liar! a relapse.” “I had a fit,” insisted Albert, who was discharged on his promise to continue his conversion classes. •* * ¥■ -x James Hell, lie swore a feud against the Clan Unchcrty, which, through their champion. Patrick, took up the challenge, and there was a fi-orr. fight in Cambridge street. ‘'lt was a terrible feud,” said Superintendent .Murray at the .Northern Police Court this morning when James and Patrick glowered at each other in front of Bailie Macfarlane. "They are rival bookmakers,” explained the superintendent, “and when they are not fighting they are writing letters against each other. The Chief Constable receives anonymous letters undoubtedly sent by Docherty against Bell, and I have received 20 letters from householders complaining that the police are paying too much attention to Bell, who, of course, has inspired the correspondence.

‘‘The feud has caused excitement ill the Gowcaddcns area, and when Bo 11 and Docherty were seen to approach each other in Cambridge street the word swiftly went round, and supporters of each side .swarmed to watch tlio battle of the bookmakers. But a sergeant and a constable had also got the word, and dividing the rivals between them, they stopped the fight in the first round.”

Honours seemed equal, for whereas James lias the heavier hand in a “scrap,” Patrick lias the neater fist with n pen. So the bailie made it £2 each.

Jean and (Margaret typified the old stylo and the new—Jean, a young girl with knee-high skirt, silk stockings, smart shoes, shingled and tinted hair, and carnation lips, stood for the modern smart set of Cowcaddeiis; Margaret, elderly aiid prim, weaving a long dress covered with a white apron and tartan shawl over her neatly parted grey hair, represented the old school of feminine fashion as interpreted in the northern tenements. Margaret, as the more accomplished drinker, paid the higher fine.

An old crook who lias lost liis nerve and skill is James Farrell, who looks older than his .130 years. He felt his position keenly, not because he was standing in tlio dock, but because he was accused of the mean and paltry theft of four pennyworth of milk. To a man of liis convictions it must have been a bitter experience that—down to sneaking a bottle of milk left in the early morning in a shop doorway. “Aye, he’s falling off.” observed Procurator Fiscal Stratbern as, hanging bis head in shame, the discredited crook went down for 15 months.