STORY OF MENACES

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1930, Page 6

STORY OF MENACES

WATERFRONT INCIDENT. tWO MEN CHARGED, AUCKLAND, November 5. A Wellington man’s story of how he was menaced by two men on the waterfront and asked for money, and of how he bluffed them and turned them over -to. a policeman, was told to M r . Hunt, S.M., in the Police Courb tin morning. Francis Ernest Henry Pierce, an Australian labourer, aged seventeen years, and James Lewis, a Canadian seaman, aged, twenty-seven years, were charged with demanding, money by menaces,and with being, idle and disorderly . . persons with insufficient means of support. .They pleaded not. guilty to the charge of demanding money, but admitted the, vagrancy “This is a very prevalent offence, and it must be stopped,” said Chief Detective Hammond, who prosecuted. Mervvn Bruce Osborne, of Cambridge Terrace' Wellington, said that he was a clerk in the New Zealand Railways, and . was at present on holiday in Auckland. On Monday evening he went down to the water-front'for a walk.' He saw Pierce 'standing near the Hobson Street wharf. Pierce said ( ‘Good ; Day,!? aiidV a conversation started. Witness.said that lie was a srtranged to Auckland. They talked ■about things in genera], and then Pierce suggested' that witness should walk towards Luna Park, where he vyeuld get a good view of-Nertli Shore. When crossing a vacant section, ;t\yo men approached-witness, and one of them (Lewis) said, “What are you Moing here? -You’ve been up to something. * You’ve been interfering with this young chap.” Lewis accused witness of interfering. Witness denied the charge, but Pierce also said that he had.been-interfered with. “I was astounded at the accusation,” said Os'borne. “Lewis seemed to be the spokesman, and he said, ‘We got one man four years for that sort of thing. Come 'across with what you’ve got.’ I said that I had nothing, and started to .go? a Way.- The three of them were-stand-ing close round me, Two of them said that they were out of work, so I pulled out a two-shilling piece and a threepence, and told them, that was all 1 had. I pulled out ,a few more shillings, and Lewis grabbed the moneyN Tlfeh Lewis demanded £3. He said, ‘We want three quid off you.’ I said I did not have it on. me, but told them that if they diked to come up to the.hotel with me I would give it to them. Lewis said, ‘Don’t come'at any funny business. Pierce will go with you, and we will follow befiLnd.’.!’ • . On the , way to the hotel, witness icafled a'const'able' and laid a complaint. Witness' said he knew Lewis by sight. -He had seen, him in Wellington. The attitude of Lewis and his companions .was- threatening. ‘‘They put the wind up me,” lie said. “I had £5 in my inside pocket, but'they did not know that.”

Both men pleaded npt guilty, and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial.

The vagrancy charges against them were adjourned* ‘ :*