RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 235, 12 May 1874, Page 6

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Friday, May 8, 1874. (Before W. Lawrence Simpson, Esq., R.M.) MITCHTX.«ON V. PEYTON. Claim, £4l 10s. sd. This case had been adjourned from time to time since April 10, for the production of plaintiff's books, and pending the filing of a plea of bankruptcy in 1871. Mr Wilson for plaintiff; Mr Cowan for defendant, who did not appear. Evidence having been given, his Worship, in looking over the bill of particulars, said he could not allow for several single bottles of grog which were set down. Under the Tippling Act, it was impossible to recover for grog supplied of the value of less than twenty shillings. Mr Wilson explained that the plaintiff had held a bottle license, and wished to know wherein consisted the virtue of it. M r Simpson said such a license gave power to sell by the single bottle, but no mention was made of recovering at law, which, as he had said, was forbidden by the Tippling Act. Judgment was given for £33 lis. sd, without any reference to execution, on the understanding that defendant would file a fresh schedule of bankruptcy, his former application never having passed through all its stages. ANN BOX V. LILIAN CUTLER. The plaintiff claimed £4 10s., being amount of coach fare and other moneys advanced by her to defendant, in Dunedin, on the agreement of defendant to proceed to Cromwell as a servant for plaintiff's hotel. Mr Wilson for plaintiff ; Mr Cowan for defendant, who paid £l, being one week's wages received by her in advance, into Court. Mr Wilson stated the case. Plaintiff hired defendant in Dunedm, through Miss Cane, as a general servant ; but defendant, on arrival in Cromwell, refused to accept the situation. He produced agreement. Mr Cowan, for defendant, admitted the agreement, and also the fact of having received the sums of money mentioned in the plaint-note. Mrs Box, being sworn, deposed that Miss Cane hired defendant in Dunedin, and that the money was paid by her to defendant as stated. Her stepson telegraphed to her in Dunedin that the defendant refused to come to her house. When she came to Cromwell herself, a few davs afterwards, she went to Kelly's hotel, where the girl was staying, and asked her to fulfil her agreement. Tho. girl appeared willing ; but she was stopped by Mrs Kelly and others. She did not blame the girl one bit, but those that put her up to it. Cross-examined : She did not receive any letter in Dunedin from defendant; neither did Miss Cane. Misn (Jane was in a regular way about it, and advised her to sue the girl. She saw the girl in Dunedin, and liked her appearance. When she engaged the girl, she said nothing about her house being a quiet, respectable, comfortable house, nor did she authorise Miss Cane to toll her so ; still, it was a house of that description. She had said it was as good as any house in Cromwell. She behaved like a lady to the girl; gave her £2, part for a week's board, and part for travelling expenses, besides paying her coach-fare, and her share of Miss Cane's fee. And she was an honest woman, and all she desired was her own.

To his Worship : They always sent rubbish of girls to her, so she went down to Dunedin on purpose to engage one. Mr Cowan argued that the defendant was induced to leave Dunedin on the false and fraudulent representation that Mrs Box's house was <]uiet and respectable. He'called Lilian Cutler, who said she saw Mrs Box in Dunedin at the time of engagement. Mrs Box told her the house was quiet, respectable, and comfortable ; while Miss Cane said it was one of the most respectable houses in Cromwell. She would not have left Dunedin except on.those representations. Everywhere during the journey up, when she mentioned where she wa3 going, people said it was a pity that any respectable girl should go to such a house. The coachman from Clyde to Cromwell advised her not to go ; and, having taken his advice, everyone said she was quite right in not going. Mrs Kelly, at the place where the coach stopped, offered to let her stop a few days, and since then had engaged her, "but was not to pay her coach-fare. Cross-examined by Mr Wilson: She did not generally mention her private affairs, but the reason she did on the road was that Mrs Box told her all she had to do while travelling was to ment : on her name, and she would be attentively and kindly treated. She was told by many that no girl who stayed any time at Mrs Box's coul 1 get into a respectable situation afterwards. Her impression was that it was a rowdy "house ; drunken diggers and so on. If all she heard was true, she had no hesitation in saying that Mrs Box wis only served quite right if she bad to pay (and lose) the passages of respectable girls every fortnight. « Sergeant Cassels had known Mrs Box hotel-' keeping in Cromwell about six years. Her servants were generally prostitutes. One of them was now doing three months v. Dunedin. She sometimes got respecl:ablo girls: One of thorn he had' known came to him at the end of a month, crying, and saying she could not put up with it any longer ; Mrs Box had called her names. The house was always called into by the loose characters who caniu to the town. Mrs Box would not, he felt sure, allow anything criminal or anything really bad to occur in her house ; but nevertheless the facts he stated were true.

T\lr Simp ion said if these facts had been represented at the Licensing Meeting, certainly he thought Mrs JV'X would not have rot a license

It was very un'ikely she would get it next year. Sergeant Cassels said the house had been quieter lately. He believed it got a worse name than it deserved. Mrs Box had got good accommodation in her house, and kept good liquors.—To his Worship : Mrs Box was hottompered, and had a bad tongue. Ho would most certainly not allow any female connection of his to serve there. Mr Simpson, in giving judgment, said it was evident the house could not be described, as a respectable, quiet house. Mrs Box had therefore made a false representation, which had induced the defendant to leave Dunedin. Judgment would be given for £l, and costs of Court, 9s. One case in connection with the house had come before him, tho circumstances of which did not justify him in refusing a license ; but certainly, if he had heard such a report from the police ou ths Licensing day as he had heard from Sergeant Cassels to-day, he would have advised the Commissioners to refuse a license to Mrs Box. RUSSELL V. WATSON. Mr Cowan appeared for plaintiff. Mr Simpson said, in consequence of the Resident Magistrate at Naseby limiting the distance to be travelled by the bailiff to twenty-five miles, the summons had not been issued. Fresh summons to issue. SLAUGHTERING LICENSE. John Halliday's application for the above at Bannockburn was granted.