MAGISTERIAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1378, 23 October 1886, Page 2

MAGISTERIAL

SOUTH RaKAI•< —THURSDAY.

(Before Mt H. S. C. Baddeley, R.M.) CIVIL CASS T. Hill v Brimioombe renr. and junr., claim £t 19i for rent of house, the evidence was conflicting- The senior defendant requested his Worship, Instead of the constable, to awearhimon the Gospel as his was a religious oath. Judgment for £4 7s 6d and costa. ALLEGED CRUELTY, Luke Brown, John McCoy, and James O’Keefe, three boys, were charged with illtreatine.a foal, the property of B. J Dunn.—George Clark gave ovid>nce that on Thursday he heard shots from a gnn or pistol, and h'ud shouting by young persona after each shot. He found Dunn’a foal in a atate of great he'plessneaa, and could not get it to stand.— William Clark, a boy of eight year-, said he saw the foal tamble over the wires in the fence. He heard the shots.—Ed ward MoFall saw the foal In a dreadful atat° on the 23rd, and helped to wash it. He found marks much like shot marks In the right forearm. The wounds were putrified a week ago.—B. J. Dunn, the complainant, said in consequence of what he heard he went to see his foal on the night of the 23rd September, and found it helpless It was all cut and punctured about the breast and shoulders. There were many bruises on the body, and a cut some three inches long and an inch deep on the chest Ue had had to destroy the foal.—Mary Dunn gave evidence that on the 23rd she sent the foal with her little boy to the river in the morning, and about four o’clock he returned and said that the Sod Town boys had driven the foal up the river —James Clarke, aged nine, who was not sworn, said that he saw young O’Keefe and one or two of the Eeillys shooting with a pistol at the foal. They chased it till it fell over the wires. Constable Black had examined the foal on the 10th of this mouth, the day after the complaint was made. It was in such a state that he ordered it to be destroyed. Next day he found O’Keefe, who denied any knowledge of the ill-treatment. One of the defendants had admitted having a pistol, and firing at a rabbit.—McCoy, sworn, said he had a pistol, and fired at a rabbit, and had not hit the foal. Dunn’s boys had asked him to hunt up the foal, and he and others had done so, and at last found it lying down.—The other boys told their stories, which were conflicting The Bench on the evidence could not punish, but would warn these and other boys to be very careful There was no doubt the foal had been injured, and defendants only got off by the skin of their teeth. The Court then rose.