Celebrating the Royal Birthday

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 62, 4 June 1927, Page 13

Celebrating the Royal Birthday

LOYALTY AND BEER UNWISELY AND TOO WELL TT MAY have been intense loyalty, -*• on the other hand it may have been just their weakness for beer and the fact that yesterday was a holiday, that led nine people to celebrate the King’s Birthday not wisely, but too well. Loyaltj' or beer, whichever it was, gave Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., an opportunity of viewing nine different varieties of that morning-after-tlie-night-before expression in the Police 9 ourt to-day, as the nine succeeded each other in the dock. Mary Ann Fowler, with 51 years of experience behind her, should have known better than to get drunk in Wakefield Street and at the same time break the prohibition order imposed on her last March. When the magistrate heard that it was her 43rd time before the court he fined Mary Fowler an aggregate of £2 10s, fixing the alternative at nine days’ gaol. SEAMEN ALSO CELEBRATE Quay Street provided the setting in which William Patrick Tomney and Thomas Munro, both seamen off the Canadian Britisher, which sails to-day, offered to fight all and sundry. The magistrate observed that Tomney, who is 45, would have to pay £1 for the privilege of celebrating the Royal Birthday, and then turned his attention to Munro, who is seven years older. Munro still bore signs of the fray. He stepped into the dock, with his mighty chest covered only by a thin, ragged, and sleeveless singlet. Senior-Sergeant Edwards told the court that he was minus his coat and one boot when the constable arrested him. He also was invited to contribute £1 to the finances of Justice. William Mahoney, in spite of his 55 years, had tried to perform acrobatic feats in Customs Street. He was bubbling over with an excess of good spirits when he was arrested, demonstrating how easily he could throw his left leg over a parapet. “£1 or 48 hours,’ said Mr. McKean. TWO PAIRS—TWO FIGHTS John Blades Coutts and Clifford Jackson, both 32, “weren’t exactly fighting in the railway entrance,” so they said. On the evidence of Constable Collins, however, who said they were having a rough and tumble and exchanging blows, they were fined £1 each. Raymond Patrick Letton, aged 21, and Joseph Kane, one year his senior, were charged with the same offence in Queen Street. On Kane explaining that there were only two blows—“He struck me and I struck the ‘floor’,” —Mr. McKean let him off. Letton, however, is now £1 poorer, the alternative being 48 hours in gaol. “JUST A MISTAKE” Herbert Fry and William McGee shared a room in a Grey Street boarding house and had just retired to rest about 9.30 last night when George David Cargill, who also sheltered under the same roof, pushed their door open and walked in. His rudeness did not end there. Catching McGee by the wrist he dragged him out of bed. Fry slid out from under the sheets and Cargill grabbed him too. Having seized on a bottle of beer that was in the room. Cargill departed, leaving both men nursing their twisted wrists. » Cargill explained to the magistrate this morning that it was “all just a mistake.” They had been celebrating together during the day. He had asked them nicely for the beer and they refused to give it to him. Cargill’s insatiable thirst cost him £s—£2 on each charge of assault, and 10s to each of the owners of the bottle which he coveted.