AKAROA RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 679, 16 January 1883, Page 2

AKAROA RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Friday, January 12.

Before Justin Aylmer, Esq., R.M., and W. B. Tosswill and T. Adams, Esqs., J.P's.

larceny of a calf. George Kearney was charged on remand with taking a calf, the property of Patrick O'Reilly. P. O'Reilly, sworn, aaid : I am a livery stable keeper. I know the calf in question. It came astray to my place. I tried to find the owner, and at last discovered it was Mr McGregor's. From what I told him he sold me the calf. Some time ago I missed tne calf. I missed it in December. It was running with my cow, and came back on the Monday evening following. I spoke to defendant about the calf. He said he thought the calf waa his. I told him it was one of Mr McGregor's that had strayed to my place I missed the calf on the Saturday night, and it came back on the Sunday. He admitted he had taKen the calf on a previous occasion, and said tbat he had he.ird I had no receipt for it. I told him that if he took the calf again I should put the law in force against him. I told him I had bought tho calf from Mr McGregor, and that if he had a claim he could sue me. I told him tho calf he claimed was older than the one he had lost. There was a difference of 8 or 9 months between the time Kearney's calf was running with my cow and the time I missed the c.lf in question. Defendant never claimed the calf all the time it was running till it was taken away by somebody. Defendant had a cow and calf running in the paddock 18 months. He never made any claim to that calf till after I bought it. I never branded the calf. It has been branded since defendant took it away. By Mr Nalder : I rent the paddock from Mr Duncan of Christchurch. There ia no fence between the part I rent and some land rented by defendant. I got the receipt from Mr McGregor. There was no stipulation that if the calf waa claimed the money should be returned. I swear no stipulation was made. By Bench: It waa through a man named Kerridge that I went to McGregor to buy the calf. Il was a peculiar looking calf, but I know of no special mark. I have had no conversation at other times with defendant about the calf. I never asked defendant if the calf was his. I made every possib'e effort to find an owner before buying tbe calf. Mrs O'Reilly, sworn, said: I am P. O'Reilly's wife. I havo known the calf since last winter that is outside the Court. Wm. Kearney had a conversation with me about the calf. He s-aid that if ho were me he would stick a brand on it at once. I don't know where the calf came from. It was a dirty filthy thing when it came. We bought the calf to keep our c >w quiet. I saw George Kearney looking at the calf on the 18th December last. There was no brand on the calf. By Bench: We do not brand our cattle. We have only one cow, and sell the calves. John Kerridge, sworn, said : I know the calf outside the Court. I savy Walter Parsons drive the calf. He was driving it to a paddock where there were others. A day or two after I saw the calf in O'Reilly's paddock, and there it has been since. I remember going with Sergeant Willis to defendant's place. I knew the calt there 15 chains away. Constable Scott deposed to seeing the calf running in Mr O'Reilly's since May or June last. Mrs O'Reilly told him she should like to find an owner for the calf. By Mr Nalder: When I went to Paua Bay I could not bring the calf back, because it was with other cattle and the country was so bad. Charles O'Reilly, a lad, the eon of P. O'Reilly, deposed : The calf outside has been running in our paddock with our cow for six months past. Sometime ago I met Jule Lelievre, who told me that he thought the calf running in our paddock belonged to George Kearney. Wm. Kearney, sworn, said: I am a brother of defendant. I waa with ray brother on January 2nd taking tho calf outside from Mr O'Reilly's paddock to Paua Bay. I cannot Bay that I know the calf. When my wife was confined on November 19,1 had a conversation with Mrs O'Reilly. I did not tell hor that if I , were her I should brand the calf; My

brother told me once before he was going to take the calf. I remember when my brother had a cow and calf running in the paddock and about Lelievre's. My brother went to Paua Bay 8 or 9 months ago. I cannot say if the calf that was running with his cow is the same as that outside. I assisted in branding the calf outside. By Mr Nalder: I helped to take the calf from the paddock known as Misa Malmanche's. We took il away in the open day light, in the afternoon. Walter Parsons, sworn, said : I am Mr McGregor's clerk. I remember losing a calf opposite Vangioni's some months ago. I was driving three, and this one broke back. It was a red calf, and I believe had white on it. It was what we call a yearling, but not a year old. The calf outside the Court is of similar color. The calf was very poor when I was driving it. By Mr Nalder: The calf was sold to Mr O'R'illy conditionally that it belonged to Mr McGregor. There was nothing said about ths money being returned. I may as well tell you what I know about it. (Laughter.) Mr O'Reilly came to me some months ago and said that there was a calf in his paddock, which he believed was Mr McGregor's. I thought from what he said it was branded H. I saw a red calf down in tho cemetery branded H, that Mr Porter told me about, and I fancied that was the calf O'Reilly referred to. It was not, however, for the calf at O'Reilly's had no brand, and so waa likely to be Mr McGregor's that had been lost. Kerridge said he saw the calf that broke away from me, and believed it was the same that was in O'Reilly's paddock. The Bench—Why have you put the words that you sold the calf conditionally at the end of the receipt. Witness—Mr Nalder asked me to put that down, and I put it down just to , oblige him. Ho kepi asking me to put it i down every minute or two. (Laughter.) A. I. McGregor, sworn, said : I have seen the calf outside. Some time ago I waa dealing in calves, and when I came to balance up I found I was some short. ■ I met O'Reilly in the street, and he asked : me if I were short of any calves, and I said yes, and he then told me about the calf, and he bought it from me. De- . fendant came to see me about the calf in question once or twice. I told him I how I had sold it to O'Reilly. He asked what claim I had on the calf. He said he would go halves with me. I believe he offered to throw Yankee Grab for it. I refused, saying it waa either mine or his. By Mr Nalder : I cannot swear whether defendant proposed the Yankee Grab. I certainly understood when I sold O'Reilly the calf that if it were not mine he would I get bis money back. George Sadler, sworn said : I remember being groom for Mr Lee. I know • O'Reilly's cow; she is the biggest loafer ■ in the town. (Laughter.) O'Reilly's cow and another cow and calf came into my garden. The other cow was Kearney's, and its calf was then a good size. The • calf outside is about 15 months old. The ■ calf I knew as Kearney's was as old as that months ago, besides it was spotted. > I am sure it could not be the same as the one outside. Sergeant Willis,_sworn, said : Defendant told me he did not know the calf, but many others knew it. He mentioned Jules Lelievre, Drury, and Landergan as knowing tho calf. This concluded the case for the police, and Mr Nalder then called the following evidence for the defence :— George Kearney, the defendant, sworn, said ; In 18811 had a cow in Lelievre's paddock, and it had a calf, and that ia the calf outside, to the best of my belief. The cow was two months in Lelievre's paddock, and then was turned into Mm Malmanche'tJ paddock. The mother waa red and white. I was then living where Mr Miles now lives. In 1882 I went to Gough's Bay. The calf mated with a spotted heifer a year and a half old. In April I met the calf and another on the road from Paua Bay (where I had taken it) to Akaroa. A fortnight after I took the calf to Paua Bay it got away to Akaroa. Later it got away again, and came back to O'Beilly'. paddock. Jules Lelievre told me the calf was in the paddock. I took it away openly in the daylight, knowing it to be mine. By Police: I had only one calf in O'Reilly's paddock. I look the calf twice over to Paua Bay. I branded the calf quickly, because I wanted to have it. I will swear it was not a spotted calf ray cow had. There was a spotted heifer running with my cow. o'i.veilly spoke to me about the calf. I took it out of the paddock. Laßt April the calf was five months old. I will not swear to the calf myself, but believe it to be mine. The calf was taken off Malmanche's part of the paddock. Augaste Jjelievre, sworn, said : I helped to drive the three calves with Parsons through the town. They were very small and weak, and came from Keegan's. They were not like the calf outside. By the police : They did not break back at all. The sergeant pointed out to the Bench that these must be a different lot. James Landergan, sworn, said : I think the calf outside is Mr Kearney's. It waa reared at Mr Lelievre's, where I worked. I remember cutting gorse on the Purple Peak road some time ngo, I saw a calf coming towards Akaroa, and I went to Lelievre's and Baw the calf was at tho iron gate leading to the paddock. I thought it was a heifer calf. I cannot say how long it was between the first time I saw the calf and the second. I saw the calf in the stockyard about a month ago. The calf when it was reared was pail fed and in good condition. The sergeant said that it had been sworn that the calf was poor when it came to O'Reilly's and this witness said it was in good order. J. Drury, sworn, said : I have had a good deal to do with cattle. 1 know the calf outside. I have seen a similar animal. It was Mr G. Kearney's. I have seen it about Mr Lelievre's. It has a peculiar mark on the forehead by which I know it. I helped him to feed one similarly marked when it was a calf. I helped him to shift it on the tether, I have seen the calf in Mr O'Reilly's. By police : About 14 or 15 months ago the calf was kept tethered about Mr Lelievre's gate. I have not been working with Mr Lelievre lately. If any one had asked me whose calf it waa I could have told them. I have not seen it for four or five months, but know it by the peculiar mark. Mrs George Kearney deposed that tbe calf outside waa her husband's. She had fed it herself. She know the calf by a