A POLICE COURT INCIDENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3166, 17 April 1909, Page 5

A POLICE COURT INCIDENT.

MR CROSS'S EXPLANATION. A PARTICULARLY CHILDISH ALLEGATION. To the Editor. Sir, —Will you kindly permit me to make a personal explanation in regard to the difference which occurred between Mr Pownall and myself, at the Police Court on Thursday morning. The|[statements',which Mr Pownall credits me|with having made use of the day before are entirely incorrect. Mr Pownall and myself met in Queen Street on the previous day, and during the conversation which'ensued I made the remark to Mr Pownall, in a jocular manner, tbat he had had it all his own way that morning, and in reply to a remark of his, I said that the case may h?ve gone off differently had I been on the Bench, not would have gone differently, as stated by Mr Pownall. Mr Pownall then asked, "When are you sitting on the Bench again, Cross?" I replied, "To-morrow morning." This is absolutely all that passed between us. Mr Pownall further accuses me of thrusting myself upon the Bench, which is absolutely false, as Mr Foley, Cterk of the Court, asked me the previous Wednesday morning to attend the Court on Thursday, This Mr Foley can bear me out in. I also consider that Mr PownalPs objection to my sitting on the Bench on the grounds of bias and prejudice against himself to be particularly childish, as I have never entertained any grudge whatever against him, and it seems to me that the shoe is on the other foot, and that We have not got to go very far to seek the cause. Thanking you in anticipation.—l am, etc., ' JOHN CROSS.