Smoking on a Railway Platform.

Manawatu Herald, 12 January 1895, Page 3

Smoking on a Railway Platform.

■ vO -I •---;-• «■--■ :■;■'} , ■ • «fr , A weU-dreased man named Thomas *cu"arge3*aTlKe Magistrate's Court yesterday with smoking on of the Government BMlway Station on the 17th December, and also with insulting John Jack,. rJ»«d^porter, on the same oacftiioßk Tht defendant.. Jack

stated, refused to stop smoking on the platform when requested to do so, and also used insulting language to him. He first gave his address as Hongkong, and then at Madras. Mr Wilford, for the defence, argued at Bome length that the by-laws were not placed in a conspicuous position on the platform, and that, therefore, the defendant could successfully put in the plea of ignorance, and that the by-law was nullified by the continued- tacit consent of the authorities to the practice of smoking on the platform. Defendant was called, and said he could not find the by-laws o ; n the platform, and asked Jack to show him them, but could get no satisfactory reply. He was not smoking at the time Jack spoke to him, but about half-a-dozen others were smoking then, and witness lit his pipe then and smoked it, telling Jack that he believed he was justified in doing as he had done for the last 20 years* ; His Worship ordered defendant to pay a fine of 10s, with costs £1 7s sd, for using insulting language, and for smoking on the platform he was ordered to pay the costs, 9s. — Times.