SUPREME COURT, DUNEDIN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 156, 15 October 1872, Page 6

SUPREME COURT, DUNEDIN.

The quarterly Criminal Sittings of the above Court were opened" fnriVlonday morning, 7th October, before his Honor Mr Justice Chapman. The calendar was not a heavy one, — there being but seven cases in all. The grand jury found true bills against all the prisoners. The following report of the proceedings is condensed from the Dunedin papers : MONDAY, 7xn OCTOBER. LARCENY AS A BAILEE.

Bichard C. Ecati pleaded Guilty to a cnarge j of misappropriating funds belongkg to his late emplovers. The features of his case are thus described in the Judge's opening charge: —"The prisoner was confidential clerk to Murray, Roberts, and Co., wool-brokers. Mr Roberts had occasion to go into the country, and he drew four cheques, one for £2OO and three for £IOO each, leaving them with his confidential clerk, to meet the ordinary accounts, I suppose, of the business. When Mr Roberts returned, he found that Evatt had gone to Melbourne. After inquiry, it j was found that the three cheques for £IOO | each had been properly disposed of, and properly accounted for in the books. Not so, however, the cheque for £2OO ; for it was discovered that the prisoner had received the money for this cheque and not accounted for it at all."—Sentence was deferred.

HORSE-STEALING. George Sinclair, on bail, pleaded Not Guilty to a charge of horse-stealing. Thomas Harrison, farmer, Tomahawk Valley, had missed a horse from his paddock in June, 1871, which horse was three months ago found in tlit; possession of a Mr Fraser, whom H arrison sued, and recovered the horse. Information was given to the police, who found; that the horse had been bought by Mr Arthur j Smith, of Dunedin, a livery-stable keeper, from the prisoner. The prosecutor, Harri- j son, stated that he would not take £SO for the horse, while the livery-stable keeper said it j was not worth £5. Mainly owing to the; length of time which had elapsed between j the missing and finding of the hors?, rendering it a case of merely strong suspicion as to whether the horse had been stolen by Sinclair, the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty. ROBBING A MIXER. Samuel Holly pleaded Guilty to a charge of stealing, on the 7th May, £53 and llozs. of gold, belonging to Mr Robert Watson, Arrowtown. His Honor : You have pleaded guilty of a I rather extensive theft in a dwelling-house. j It appears according to your own confession, | that you carried away £SJ in bank notes, j and llozs. of gold, worth, I suppose, £35 ! more. You took advantage of the absence ;of the industrious miner to enter his dwelkj ing, and commit this robbery. Fortunately j for you no previous convictions are recorded i against you. The sentence of the Court is that you he imprisoned and kept to hard i labour for two years. plummer's offences. Frederick Plummer was indicted for being ' at large during penal servitude ; and also for j having committed five separate larcenies while !so at large. He pleaded Not Guilty, and, ; having received the d -positions of the witj messes for the Crown only two or three days ! previously, asked for greater time to prepare | his defence. He was granted until Wednes--1 day morning.

ATCSON AT CLYDE. William Duffi/ pleaded Not Guilty to the charge of setting fire to a house at Clyde, with intent to injure Mr W. Auckland, the owner. Mr Stout defended the prisoner. The else for the Crown was this : The prisoner had been living separate from his wife, ivho occupied the house which was set on fire. Tiiey had been separated for six or seven months previousl". The prisoner was drunk on the occasion of the fire, which occurred at about two o'clock on Sunday morning, Bfb8 f b September. On that morning, Mr Alexander -loss, saddler, Clyde, who lives in the immediate neighbourhood, was disturbed by a violent knocking at one of the houses adjacent. He went into the street, and saw the prisoner, who was knocking at the door of his wi.'c's bouse. Mr Joss remonstrated with the prisoner, but when endeavouring to get him away from his wife's house, he threatened, and wanted to fight Joss. The prisoner afterwards returned to Mrs Duffy's house, again made a disturbance, and was in fact, knocking at the door, and it was noticed that there was no light in the house at the time. Shortly afterwards, the footsteps of a person going up the street were heard, and one of the witnesses hearing a cry of fire, .looked out of his own house, and sav that Mrs Duffy's dwelling was on fire. The fire was observed almost at the same time by several witnesses. Mr William Grindlcy, when engaged taking water from a water-race to help to extinguish the ftames, heard the prisoner, who was muttering to himself, say, —-"You b ■ , you're blazing away now ; I made you blaze." Again, a clock which had been identified as being usually in the house of Mrs Duffy, was brought by the prisoner on the morning of the fire to the place where he was living. Evidence was given by Messrs Joss, Grindley, J. Holloway, J. D. Coombor, W. Auckland, James Patterson, and Sergeant Shury. Mr Stout, in his address to the jury, contended that the evidence did not sustain the charge of arson. After the jury had deliberated for about twenty-five minuses, they returned a verdict of Not Guilty. The prisoner was then discharged. TUESDAY, Bth OCTOBER. WOUNDING. Thomas Borland was indicted for having, at Dunedin, on August 22, assaulted his wife,

with intent to do her actual bodily harm. Mr E. Cook, who appeared for the prisoner, suggested that the Crown Prosecutor should accept a plea of guilty of- common assault, but Mr Haggitt declined, and the case proceeded. .-,,.- . i it "seemed;""wdi a sober, .hardworking;' good-tempered man ; whilst his Mviffc Was a brutal and'habitual drunkard. •JoA>the day mentioned, the prisoner, on going home, found his wife in a state of "filthy, stupid drunkenness" ; and she refused to make tea for him and the children. Thereupon he struck her over the legs and other parts of the body wilh a loaded whip ; and, whether from the effects of his beating! or oi a fall was not- clear,, her arm was broken. The jury found the prisoner Guilty of; common assault, and brought in a verdict to that effect.—Sentence was deferred.

SHEEP-STEALIN'G. John Batty was indicted for having, at Blueskin, on August 3, stolen six sheep, the property of his employer, Edward Menlove. Mr Stout defended. The prisoner, who had been for some time in Menlove's service, was sent by him to Waikouaiti to bring sheep into Dunedin. Instead of the 521 which were entrusted to him at Waikouaiti, Batty delivered only 507 in Dunedin. Mr Menlove made enquiries, and discovered that Batty had sold, to a butcher at Blueskin, seventeen sheep at Bs. 6d. each, the skins of some of which Menlove was ahle to identi y. The jury, aft">r twenty minutes' retirement, returned a verdict of Not Guilty,—a result mainly owing to the fact that a mistake had occurred in regard to the number of sheep mentioned in the delivery-notes. Thus, although the prisoner had reallv received 524 sheep, he had signed only for 504.

WEDNESDAY, 9th OCTOBER. PRISONERS SENTENCED. Thomas Borland, 40, convicted of committing a common assault upon his wife, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and ordered to enter into his own recognisance of £IOO to keep the peace towards his Majesty's subjects for twelve months from the date of his liberation. Richard Chapman Evatt, 23, for embezzlement, was sentenced to imprisonment, with hard labour, for two years. plumuer's offences. Frederick Plummer, for escaping from gaol, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment; and having a!s ) been found guilty of several acts of larceny whilst at large, received further sentences amounting to two and a half years' incarceration, —making in, years. In answer to the first indictment (for being illegally at large, the prisoner made a lengthy and ingenious defence. His peroration was really eloquent : —*' Am Ito be held responsible for the Meglect of my keepers ? If they leave me, unknowingly and innocently, where they have legally taken me, is the fault mine I Have I, by their running away from me, committed a crime against the peace of the Queen, and placed myself illegally at large : ' 1 say I have not. The crime—the fault—is not mine. 1 cannot help the blunder, and am I to be made answer for it—am I to be made suffer for it / Where is the guilt ] Will you, gentlemen, allow so foul a blot to b.; cast upon Britain's imperial escutcheon : ! will you allow the beautifully poised, the ; baluue of juste?, to be so miserably upset: j will yo.i allow the brilliant and dazzling lustre of the Crown to be sullied : will you allow ; the royal dignity of the noblest of Sovereigns ; t'uit ever swayed svptre or sat upon a throne 1 to lie so imposed upon by having it bruited i i'orth that a poor prisoner, one of her subjects, was basely punished Ik cause lie was held responsible for the action of his keepers \ ' You will not, gentlemen,—you will not. By I the sacred value of your oath, you cannot. \ (Gentlemen, I have no more to say."