JOHN COMES TO TOWN

NZ Truth, Issue 1153, 5 January 1928, Page 7

JOHN COMES TO TOWN

tlystery of Stolen Wad Yet To Be Solved (From "N.Z. Truth's" Hastings Representative.) EN Arthur Harry "Wilson, one of the best-known taxi-drivers m Hastings, was asked to answer a charge of stealing £17 I the person of John Reid, t wo justices had unfolded to them Lusual story.

gj REID is — or was — a station He employed at Maraekahako I^Kion. He had not been to town |H^uple of months, and naturally cheque due to him in HHitly the lure- of town at time was beckoning, so he for Hastings and its pitfalls for £15 and an addiin cash and kind. way into town, John spent at the Fernhill Hotel, where his cheque, and then walkHastings to make the Railhis home. He his night's lodging and next ■■Fday, December 16, he consulted John had lived well, since leaving Maraefor the morning after he in Hastings, his finances about £17 17s. 6d. then on that Friday led him to the Pacific Hotel,

lie inauigea About ots, in fact, counsel for ised. afternoon,

to go to } — — — to meet a couple of friends, so the accused, Wilson, it was take him out. the court that when he got car, he had had a few drinks, quite well what he was ■He remembered 'getting into driving up the main street ■ e Stortford Lodge Hotel, but his mi/id went blank. was about 2.30 p.m. When senses returned at 7 p.m., he in a lonely untenanted in the unfrequented outskirts V> borough. B pockets were absolutely empty, Bhis tobacco being gone, and all ■ was left to remind him that he I still there was his "head." He Iped his way back to town, arriving nt 9 p.m., and promptly looked up ' police and told^hia story. n the next day, Saturday, in comy with Detective Fitzgibbon, a call i made on the accused on the taxi-

Reid's Challenge

stand, but according: to the evidence Wilson said he could not remember having seen Reid before, although at a later stage he admitted that he had seen him at the hotel, and had actually gone into the hotel with him. He could not remember, either, if he had taken Reid out in his car. Even John's challenge: "You remember, all right, Wilson — come into the hotel and I will prove it," did not refresh his memory, and the challenge went unaccepted. There bein£ "nothing doing,'' so far as the accused was concerned, the detective and Reid left him, the intention being to meet again in the detective's office in ten minutes' time. It was stated that in the meantime, however, John went back to Wilson without letting the detective know anything about it, and told Wilson that if he got £10 he would be satisfied and would not make a case of it. ' Wilson agreed to this, and the pair

house where Wilson handed over £8 with a promise to pay another £3 on the following

Monday. When the detective heard of this transaction, he promptly took possession of what was left of the £8, which had dwindled by 50 per cent, in the meantime. On the Monday the detective got in touch with Reid, and after searching him and ascertaining that he had no money on him, sent him along to Wilson for the balance he had promised. A few minutes' later, Reid returned with another 30/- which he said Wilson had paid him. This was also collared by the detective. The story went on that later in the day on the Monday^ the detective again interviewed the accused who then admitted that he had seen Reid at the hotel on the Friday. He still denied, however, that Reid had ever been in his car to his knowledge. There the matter stands for the present, for, through Lawyer C. Duff, the accused pleadad not guilty, and he has been remanded to the Supreme Court at Napier in February for trial.