SUPREME COURT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 815, 12 May 1910, Page 9

SUPREME COURT.

CHRISTCHURCH SESSIONS. (By TcleeraDh-Prcss Association.) Christchurch, May 11. At tho Supremo Court to-day James Lewis, alias Johnson, on on admitted charge of forging and uttering, was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. 1). A. Hamilton, on admitted charges (three) of forgery, whs sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. John lrembath, alias C. W. Boss, who pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery, received a sentence of eighteen months. Frank lteed pleaded guilty to a series of charges or stealing various sums from the. Lyttelton Pirates' Football Club and was remanded till to-morrow pending the probation officer s ret>ort. Hftrry Shaw pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery, and was remanded till to-morrow for sentence.. Thomas Francis O'Connor pleaded not guilty to a charge of having assaulted a girl under sixteen. The jury returned a verdict of not guiiiy. (Jiiunes Faliey, a yoiuij man, charged with cruelty to a horse, was, after evidence, found hot guilty. Cecil Herbert Jeffreys, 18 years of age, who had broken tho terms of his probation, was given another chnnco and admitted to three years' probation under certain conditions. James Carney was found guilty of theft from tho person. Sentence was postponed till to-inorrow.

K. M'Pherson was charged with having broken and entered a place of public worship, the Spiritualists' Church, and stolen a coat and overcoat. Counsel raised the point as to whether the Spiritualists' Church could bo called a "place of public worship," and siiid that it was a question whether Spiritualism, as practised in Christchurch, was not illegal. Argument on Hie point, however, was avoided by the reduction of tho charge to one of simple theft. Pritonor, who had a. long list of South African convictions against his name, was found guilty, and remanded till to-morrow, when he will have an opportunity to sliow cause why ho should not be declared an habitual criminal.