SUPREME COURT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1993, 25 February 1914, Page 9

SUPREME COURT.

MAN'S PLEA IN MITIGATION.

(By. Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) - Palmerston, February 24. The ;Supreme .Court Sessions opened to-day before Mr. Justice Edwards. ,-Unusual circumstances - attended the first case in consequence of accused's statement as to his 'physical and mental health. Ho was Allan Barbour Hogg, aged 60, and was convicted of forgery and false pretences. at Palmerston. ■ Accused said that influenza had driven him to alcohol-and driigs iust prior [to 'tho erim<y Previously he had been an inmate of Mount View, and Waitaiki Homes, and for (three months and a half past ho had lived "practically in h "in Wellington Gaol. Ho had been under a doctor for angina pectoris for .years, and gaol again would sign his death warrant. "I have," he said, "been thanked for my work among the .Maoris .by such men as the late Mr. Seddon. When I committed these offences I was n<Jn compos mentis." The jury reepmmended leniency,. and the > Judge . imposed a sentence of six months' imprisonment. Joseph Vance was found guilty on a : charge of a serious pifence at Bulls with a recommendation -by the jury' for mercy. He will.be sentenced on Thursday morning..' Auckland, February 24. : At tho Supremo Court to-day Frank Messenger denied that' ho broke into tho'premises of'the New Zealand Boot' C'oi, and stole two' boots. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and pris oner was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment and two years' reformative Tho re-trial of Michael Delaney on a, charge of stealing £26 from the person of an Austrian gumdigger early in the evening of November 1 resulted in a verdict of guilty. , Delaney was ordered to.be detained for a period not exceeding two years for reformative treatment. A verdict of not guilty was returned in the trial of Joseph Williams,- who pleaded not guilty to breaking into a (lwolling-houso at Remuora on February 4, and stealing articles, valued at £40. Tohi Huitoroa, a young' Native, who admitted charges of forgery and utto, ing, was reported upon unfavourably by the police, the suggestion being that he was lazy and unsteady of habits, spending money in holiday-making and motor-car .'riding, and that in the past he had given trouble because of his mischievous actions. His Honour admitted tho prisoner to probation for a period of throe years, on condition that he abstained from and paid the full costs of the prosecution.