"BIRD OF PASSAGE"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 December 1931, Page 6

"BIRD OF PASSAGE"

LABGURER WITH LIST PLEADS GUILTY ON TWO CHARGES. Described by the police as a "bird of passage," a labourer named Stephen Francis Llewellyn Neary, appeared before Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., in the Rotorua Magistrate's Court yesterday, charged on two counts with drunken and disorderly behaviour and the use of obscene language. Senior-Sergt. Carroll, for the police, stated that on Saturday evening last, the accused was arrested as a result of a disturbance at Ohinemutu. Neary was a new arrival in Rotorua. He had arrived in town on the previous Tuesday and had slept at the doss-house for the first two nights. After that, he had left the doss-house and slept elsewhere. He had picked up with a man called McAllister and the two of them had been drinking together. Alleged Robbery. McAllister had later alleged that he had been robbed of a sum of money and had informed the police that he suspected the accused. Neary had been seen at Ohinemutu and had been interviewed about the matter, but on learning that he had been implicanted by McAllister apparently lost control of himself. Neary was a man with a list, which the Sergeant said "spoke for itself." Neary, he said, was not a resident but a bird of passage. In reply to the magistrate, the accused admitted that he had two previous convictions in regard to the use of indecent language. Neary pleaded guilty to both charges. On the charge of disorderly behaviour Neary was fined £1 and costs, and on the charge of obscene language £5 and costs. Default was fixed at two months gaol.