SIDE-STEPS AND HOOKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 336, 23 April 1928, Page 11

SIDE-STEPS AND HOOKS

ANGRY LANDLORD TENANT ATTACKED S.M.’S PATIENCE FAILS ‘‘Take him away—Take him away. I don’t blame anybody for using bad language to him,” called Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M.. from the Bench at the Police Court to-day. The oration of an accused man was too much for him. The accused was Maurice Tangnev, aged 32, who entered an emphatic pit .i not guilty to a charge of assaulting Norman Augustus Edgar. Tangney’s speeches from dock and witness box were greeted with roars of laughter by the large •gallery,” which had to be curbed at times by police officers. Edgar, who appeared with a bandage on his head, said he was a tenant of accused. There had been arguments over rent during the week, and accused threatened ‘‘to have his blood.” On Sunday morning Tangney came to witness’s apartment, and asked for a fight. When witness refused accused knocked him down and kicked him on the head. Accused’s version of the encounter was full of graphic phrase, ri<>t«.u> mod illations and elaborate gesture. wanted to do my washing,” he said, “but Edgar had barred the washhouse door. When I wont to see him about it he made a swipe at me. He’s no fighter—he just swiped. T side-stepped him—gave him two straight lefts, and then came in with a pair of right hooks. You see, he had used obscene language to me—he’s a man of that class.’’ Accused denied using the boot, and said that no blood had been found on his boots. When he went back to the ddek he began a diatribe against tenants. an.l that was where the magistrate’s patience failed. Tangney was fined £5.