CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1047, 11 January 1884, Page 2

CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

Auckland.

At the criminal sessions yesterday, in the case of Whataki, a Maori, of Tauranga, charged with perjury, a verdict of not guilty was returned, and the prisoner was discharged and cautioned. Christchurch. In the Supreme Court yesterday Daniel Maydwell was tried for obtaining an advance from the New Zealand Grain Agency and Mercantile Company by falsely representing the contents of five casks as tallow. The trial occupied the whole day. The defence proved that the casks contained tallow extracted from bones, but the stuff was described as in a fermented and putrid condition. A verdict of not guilty was returned. At the Supreme Court to-day Joseph Pritchard, for an indecent assulc on his niece, was sentence I to four years’ penal servitude. Dunedin At the Dunedin Supreme Court yesterday the principal case was the charge against John Newton of indecent assault upon a girl eleven years old, in the min tug district of the Nevis. He was found “ 6 illy,” and on being challenged said all he hid to say was that the girl was the consenting party when she came to his hut. Bis Honor said—- “ Prisoner, you seem to have done your best to corrupt and ruin this child, and although you have not used violence, yet I think it is a case where severe punishment should be indicted. If the child indeed, as you say freely consented, she did so because through your prior conduct she had become depraved. The sentence of the Court is that you be kept to penal servitude in the colony of New Zealand for the term of seven years, and farther, thit you be privately whipped with a cat-o’-njae-tails, receiving twentyr five lashes.” A Chinaman named Ah Chew, who pleaded “Guilty” to burglary in a drapery shop in George street, was sentenced to four years ; and another named Wong Ah Tack, who was found “Guilty” of having stolen gooes from the same shop in his possession, got 12 months.