“SIX SOLID MONTHS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 14

“SIX SOLID MONTHS”

WHAT JUSTICES GAVE HIM AITKEN PREFERS A JUDGE William Henry Aitken had a right and nothing could shake his determination to use it. The law gave him the choice between being dealt with by the magistrate on a charge of using obscene language or going before a judge and jury in the Supreme Court. He elected to go ti the Supreme Court. “Do you want to put yourself to the expense and trouble of going to the Supreme Court for this trivial matter, when the whple thing could be cleared up here in five minutes?” Mr. Hunt asked him in the Police Court yesterday afternoon. “Yes, I do,’ said Aitken. “Two and a-half years ago I was brought before two justices on a similar charge and they gave me six solid months!” “Well, you haven’t got two justices this time,” said Mr. Hunt, persuasively. “These constables can go into the court and say what they like,” retorted Aitken. evading the point. “They can’t do it here,” the magistrate told him. “Do you still want to go to the Supreme Court?” “Certainly, I do.” “I was drugged,” said Aitken. I only had one glass of stout—something to build me up,” he added. "I hadn’t had a drink since I came out of hospital seven weeks ago.” Aitken was convicted and discharged on the charge of drunkenness and committed to the Supreme Court for trial on the other. Providing he can find someone with £SO he will not have to remain in gaol, where he has been for the past week on remand, in the meantime.