THE MAORI'S MUSICAL BOX.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3864, 18 May 1881, Page 2

THE MAORI'S MUSICAL BOX.

Some amusement was caused at the last sitting of the -R.M. Court, at Gotomandel, by the practical testimonial to the soundness of a musical box, which appeared as evidence in the case Penehamene v. Bryce, the claim being £5, damage done to the Maori's musical box. When His Worship H. Kenrick, Esq., Jtt.M., proceeded to sum up tlio case, he wanted information about the musical box. Wouli it play? The defendant made a rush forward, and in spite of the protestations of His Worship, wound up the musical box, which commenced playing " Pop goes the weasel," to the delight of the general public, but to the horror of the Resident Magistrate. Constable Hobson roared out " Silence!" but all in vain. Hobson could silence a tribe of Maoris on the rampage, bat the musical box defied him in open Court, and, unlike "Grandfather's clock," which " stopped short never to go again," the musical box, if it stopped at all, stopped only to change its tune, and at last, amidst the laughter of the spectators and the peremptory shouts of the police for silence, the offending musical instrument was conveyed out of Court, and ere long Harry Kenrick, EsqVs, usage ceased to bristle with indignation, and the whole Court subsided' into its customary state of legal solemnity.— Mail, ...-;.