RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 241, 23 June 1874, Page 6

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

.Friday, June 19, 1874. (Before W. Lawrence Simpson, Esq., R.M., and I. Loughnan, Esq., J.P.) POLICE V. DaGG. Charge of being unlawfully absent from his licensed house for longer period than a fortnight. Mr Dagg asked that the case might be adjourned fora week ; he did not know the seriousness of the penalty he had incurred, and wished to take legal advice on the matter. ’ .Adjournment granted, and fresh information to be laid. LA FONTAINE V. MARSH. Claim, £7 145,, for wine supplied. Mr Cowan for plaintiff ; Mr Wilson for defendant. Mr Cowan stated the cose. In M ay last, Marsh tasted wine in plaintiff’s premises, was pleased with it, and ordered 16 gallons of it. When Fontaine asked Marsh for payment, he was refused ; Marsh saying the wine was no good. Mr Marsh was a shrewd business man, and an intellectual man ; he wrote letters to the local newspaper and that sort of thing. And he should have known, if when he tapped the wine he found it bad, that the proper course to pursue was to return it at once. Jules La Fontaine’s evidence bore out the opening statement of counsel. When Marsh told him the wine was bad, he said Marsh must have changed it. All the wine he made was of the same quality. He charged Marsh 9s. for the wine, ilis prices varied, although the wine did not. Sometimes he charged Ss., sometimes 95., 10s., 125., and 15s. He handed to the Bench a sample of the wine. For the defence John Marsh gave his version of the transaction. He told Fontaine he might send him a sample of the wine. To his surprise, Fontaine brought him 16 gallons. He let it stand a fortnight to settle, and when he tapped it he was so disgusted with the taste that he never sold or allowed to he sold any over the bar. It had an acid or inky taste. When Fontaine asked him for the money, he told him the wine was bad, and rolled it in front of the bar for him to take it away. When ho told Fontaine the quantity was too great, Fontaine said he would make it, cheap for him. Mr Marsh produced the cask of wine, and filled a wine-glass as a sample for the Bench. The Bench declined to sample. John Baker, who had tasted the wine, said it had an inky taste. He had helped Fontaine to make his wine, and that at Marsh’s was quite different in taste. # Cross-examined by Mr Cowan; Was not aware that his tasting powers were in any way impaired when ho tasted the wine in Marsh’s. Was not exactly a judge of wine, but so far as his taste was concerned, could have judged a good beef-steak on the day in question. Charles Johnson also gave the wine a bad character. It was not a wine he would he would buy for sale to his customers. It tasted like sherry gone bad. The Bench wore of opinion that Marsh had ordered a sample of the wine, for which whether good or bad he should pay. 5 gallons was a reasonable quantity for a sample, and they would give judgment for £2 Os., without costs. REGINA V. JOSEPH M'GUIRF.. The prisoner was indicted on an information charging him’with stealing a £1 note from a letter, the property of (4. T. Stephenson, given prisoner to place in the Cromwell post-office. Mr Cowan, for prisoner, took exception to a fatal error, as he considered, in the information. The prisoner was entrusted with a letter, which he put into his packet. How could he steal a letter in his own possession ? Mr Simpson explained that originally it was stealing only if the person entrusted with a par-

cel broke bulk ; but a late Act maile it stealing to possess himself of the whole packet. Inspector Mowe conducted the prosecution, and called Itobevt Kidd, G, T. Stephenson, Mrs Stephenson, and Sergeant Cassels. From the evidence adduced, it appeared that Mr Stephenson had 'given M'Guire, who carried mails between Cromwell and the Nevis for Mr Kidd, letters to post, containing on each occasion a £1 .note, on April 21st, May 4th, and June 2nd and 16th. All the letters were from Mrs Stephenson, to her mother in Dunedin, — Mrs 11. B. Stenhouse. The two last contained marked notes, in consequence of the two first never having reached their destination. Sergeant Cassels took the number of the notes on each occasion, and marked them with a private mark. That given to M'Guire on'the 2nd June never reached Dunedin, but owing to Sergeant Cassels having been wrongly informed by the Cromwell postmaster that a letter to Mrs Stenhouse had been posted by the prisoner, while really it was a letter addressed to a young lady, care of Mrs Stenhouse, it had never been traced. On the 16th, when prisoner arrived in Cromwell with, the Nevis mail, Sergeant Cassels was at the post-office t.o watch .what letters were posted by ■him. He posted none, and Cassels went up to Garrick to see if Stephenson had given him the letter as arranged. On the morning of the 17th, when prisoner was starting with the mails to Cardrona, the Sergeant asked him regarding the letters. He said he had received letters only from Peake, at Quartzville, and these he had given to the coachman to post at Clyde. The Sergeant then searched him. and took from him a letter addressed to Miss Carrick, care of Mrs H. B. Stenhouse, being one of- those written by Mrs Stephenson ; and another letter from Mr Stephenson to Mr W. O. Ball. While searching him, the prisoner took a £1 note from his pocket, which the Sergeant took from him, and on examination found it to be the one he had marked and taken the, number of on the 15th. Sergeant Cassels afterwards searched the prisoner’s bedroom, and under the mattrass found a torn envelope addressed to Mrs Stenhouse. The Bench, on hearing the evidence, having decided to deal with the case summarily, Mr Cowan said he was instructed by the prisoner t > plead guilty. It was prisoner's first offence, and he was deeply regretful that he had been led astray ; he had given way to a pressure of circumstances over which he had no control. According to the Justices of the Peace Act, 1866, the Magistrates, if in their opinion the case was a trivial one, could dismiss the charge, and order prisoner to make restitution of 'the money he had stolen, and of the costs to which the person from whom the money had been stolen had been put. By dismissing the case in this way, it might be a lesson to M‘Gui e to live honestly, soberly, and uprightly for the future. After consultation, the Bench decided that one month’s imprisonment, with hard labour, in Clyde gaol, would be sufficient punishment in the case.