MAORI FINED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 March 1939, Page 5

MAORI FINED

STRIKING WIFE IN PUBLIC MAGISTRATE QUESTIONS CHARGE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NAPIER, March 27. When he appeared in the Magistrates’ Court, Napier, today, charged with striking a woman in a puolic place, Mason Timeha, a Maori, was fined £5, in default one month’s imprisonment,- and on a charge of a breach of a prohibition order he was fined £2, in default fourteen days’ gaol. Senior-Sergeant W. Pender said that Timeha was under the influence of liquor when he met his wife. She said she was going to the pictures. There was a scuffle with another Maori and accused struck his wife, cutting her lip. Timeha asked for a chance, but the magistrate said he could not overlook the incident.

The charge preferred against accussed was questioned by the magistrate, who said that for a man with the list accused had the charge was not appropriate; it should be amended to one of assault.

Senior-Sergeant Pender said a minor charge had been laid as the wife was involved, and as they were newlymarried she might have been reluctant to give evidence against her husband.

The magistrate pointed out that under an amendment to the law she could be compelled to give evidence. "The police have preferred a minor charge against you, so you are fortunate,” the magistrate told accused when altering his previous decision of one montn’s gaol to a fine of £s’ in default one month’s imprisonment.