IMPASSIONED SWEDE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 777, 25 September 1929, Page 18

IMPASSIONED SWEDE

OUTBURST IN COURT From Our Own Correspondent . WAIHI, Today. \\ hen asked in the Waihi Police Court yesterday what he had to say to a charge of being an idle and disorderly person with insufficient means ot support, Frederic Becker, a Swede aged 63, replied with an impassioned outburst in broken English. Becker would not admit that he had been disorderly, although it was true that he had no work. He had been employed digging gardens for poor women in Auckland at a shilling an hour, but it had been a struggle to keep out of the doss-house. lie had looked for work in 'Waihi and when he could not get it he saw no reason why he should not ask for a few shillings to support himself. The Labour Bureau in Auckland had turned him down dozens of times, but had sent the younger men to work in tho country. Sergeant Calwell interrupted Becker at this stage and told the Bench that Becker’s statements were probably correct, but at the time he was arrested he was slightly under the influence of drink. The sergeant suggested that the man be given a few days’ detention in the local lock-up, as he appeared to be run down in health, and in the meantime he, the sergeant, would try to get some temporary work for him. The Bench agreed with the suggestion and ordered the man to be detained in the local lock-up for seven days.