A BAD CASE.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10352, 28 April 1911, Page 1

A BAD CASE.

AND AN EXEMPLARY PENALTY

At the .Magistrate's Cburt. Te Aroha a man named Riichard Hogan, a stranger to the district, was chnrgc:l (;]) with indecent behaviour, (2) using oibsceno lanpiiag'c, (3) assaultingl 'Mr J. MciSwoeiicy, proprietor of thu Grand Hotel, and (-3) resisting Constable Maokle in the execution of his duty.

From_ the cvulencte it appears that Hosi'un we-ut into tliei Grand Hotel in tlio evening, and was refused liquor on account, of his apparently eocentriu behaviour; that shortly after-, wards lia rtnKl'ucsted himself in a most distnisting manner in the liar, that when efforts wore, made to eject him lie violently assaulted the licensee, and! it wasi only with theutmost difficulty that he was finally placed in the lock-up. His language wa.c.i describe*! Ivy seWeral of thei witnesses an being tho worst they had ever heard. Accused pleaded that the whole affair was a blank to him, a.nd thait ho must havo been either drank or mad. Usually, he added, he was a hardworking, peaoeable'man. and ho ceitainly thong-Jib Homebody must have druglijed him. Constable Maokle, on the other hand, dbolared that tho accused did not seem to he drunk, and spok<? rationally, while the tactics employed in resisting 1 arrest 'also- went to prove thait ho had his wits about him. The constable said it wad theworst c!ase of vhich he had had experience. . t Jfr Gavin, in pi'mirmncing the sent en oa of the Court ,prisoner having elected tv> be dealt" with s-iirn-marily) said it was neienssary in the. public interest that such eases should l.ia dealt with severely. The Blench wished +o mark their determination to put down the growing practice of usin<v dissiistinu ];in<ruaa'e, and would mak'o it as diffiwdt as. possible for men of prisoner's stamp to eomehere and outraga public decfcriCy. Prisoner was seinteneed to nine months-' imprisonment on the first charge, three months' on the seicoihl, and j one month on each of the others, the sentences to nm concurrently.