SUPREME COURT, NAPIER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3261, 14 December 1881, Page 2

SUPREME COURT, NAPIER.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13

(Before His Honor Mr Justice Richmond.) Tbe Court resumed its eittiug, after the adjournment, at 2 p.m. Frederick Day Eendle was atjain arraigned on two indictm?nff>, (I) with stealing a letter from the Napier Post Office, and (2) with felouiously arid unlawfully destroying it. The prisoner pleaded not guilty.

Mr M. R. Miller was chosen foreman of the jury. Harold Micbaelsen, being sworn, deposed that oa the 19th August last he wrote a letter to hh mother, at Copenhagen, Denmark. Tbo letter was written in the Danish language. He put a sixpenny and a twopenny stamp on the letter and posted it himself on Saturday, the 20th. On the 2nth or 26th of the 9ame month he went to the police office to look at some burnt fragments of paper which were shown to him by Sergeant Mahcn. Witness examined them, and distinguished his own writing. He made a note at the time of what he read on the paper. [Witness here examined the h'irnt fragments with the aid of a magnifying glass, and etated that they were the same pieces that were ahown to him at the police station.] All the words he recognised were in hie handwriting. The words might have been in the letter he sent In August, but he had no distinct recollection on that point. On the pieces i he saw at the police station he obsefved the figures "10, 188 -" By Mr Rees: Witness had no copy or memorandum of the letter. He had written several letters previously to his mother. He saw two or three words in the letter which convinced him that it was the letter of Auauat 19th. There was nothing to distingush it from any ordinary letter when he posted it. By his Honor : Witness had no doubt that the fragments were those of the letter he wrote to his mother on the 19th of August la«t. Sergeant Mahon deposed that on the 24tb of last August he received fonr boxes from Detective Grace containing fragments of burnt paper. He examined them with the aid of a magnifying glass, ami saw words written in a foreign language on some of the pieces. He Could not understand the words, but copied them on a piece of paper, and reported the mutfer to Inspector Scully, who sent for Mr Michaelson, the previous witness. There were also English words on some of the fragments. Witness counted 71 pieces of paper in all, but since then many of them bad crumbled into dust. Witness also received a purse containing a lot of stamps from Detective Grace. Detective Grace deposed to having made a search in Rendls'e apartments behind the Post Office, and finding the burnt and charred papers in prisoner's sitting-room grate. He put the lot into boxes, and handed all over to Sergeant Maboo. On the same day Constable Foster handed witness the purse mentioned above. By Mr Rees : Witness had searched the prisoner before he got the purse from Constable Foster, and he believed Sergt. Mabon had searched tbe prisoner before witness did. Witness did not ascertain if it were usual to sweep up all loose papers and burn them, nor whose duty it was to do to. By Mr Cotterill: Witness did not make a complete search of the prisoner; witness did not strip him. By his Honor : Witness asked prisoner for a purse, but he eaid he had none excepting a liitle thing he pointed out which was then > lying on the maatlepiece. Constable Foster repeated the evidence he had given in the last case Serjeant Mahon re-called : Witness searched the prisoner's place before he was? arrested, but never searched the prisoner. John Grubb, Chief Postmaster, depoeed to having the burnt papers removed from the grate in Rendle's room. On the 24th of August witness went into the prisoner's private apartments. The prisoner was standing at the table with a nnmher of letters before him and a gum bottle. By His Honor : The letters were poet letters, and the prisoner had no business with them in bis room. Examination continued: Four or five of the letters had stamps recently gummed on—the others had no stamps, but they were beiog put on. After the prisoner was arrested witness took charge of the key and kept it for several days until the police had completed their search. By His Honor: Detective Grace removed the burnt paper on tbe day following prisoner's arrest. Mrs Eendle bad gone home to her mother two or three days previously. Mr Rees addressed the jury at considerable length, and made an able defence of bis client's position, after which His Honor summed up, going into minute detail on every vital point affecting the case. The jury, after a retirement of 45 minuteß, returned into Court with a verdict of " euilty." His Honor paid he would defer sentence until the other charges against the prisoner were considered. F.)KGEKY AND UTTERING. Thomas Warner was indicted on the charge of forging and uttering a cheque for £36. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Mr A. Kennedy was chosen foreman of thr jury. W. Miller, chief gaoler of Napier, deposed that the prisoner was discharged from tbe Napier eraol at 2 30 p.m. on Friday. He had been in the gaol a little over a month. R. Henry Kobinson, draper, Emersonstreet, deposed that between 8 and 9 o'clock lifct Friday eveniDg the prisoner came i;>to his *hop and asked for a blank cheque on tl-e Union Bank of Australia. Witness gave him a blank cheque on the Bank of Australia. Prisoner said hewould call next morning to pay the penny. Witness did not know the prisoner. Witness saw the cheque next morning iv Detective Grace's possession. He compared it with the butt of his book and found that the number corresponded. Emma Gray, wife of James Gray, of the Napier Hotel, deposed that on Friday night last, about 9 o'clock, the prisoner came into the hotel with another man. The prisoner called for two drinks, which were served. He tendered a cheque for £36. The cheque produced was tbe one. He a'ked witness to advance him 15a on it till next morning. Witness looked at the cheque, and not thinking it good, refused to give him the money. Witness kept the chtque and the prisoner went away. She handed the cheque to Detective Grace the same night. By the prisoner : The prisoner wanted 15s advance on it till he could cash it— nothing more passed. Prisoner did not t-ay to her " I don't wish you to cash tbe cheque." The prisoner asked to have the cheque returHed, but witness objected to give it up. Detective Grace stated that on Friday night between 11 and 12 o'clock be saw the prisoner in Hastings-street making a complaint to a constable that Mrs Gray had kept a cheque of his, and that he consequently had no means. Witness asked where he got the cheque, and he " From Mr Douglas," adding that it was for two horees he had sold him. Witness subsequently got tbe cheque from Mrs Gray. He met the prisoner the following morning in Dickens-street. The prisoner requested witness not to take any notice of the complaint he had nude on the previous evening about the cheque. Witness then asked him from whom he had got the cheque, and he said from Mr John Douglas, of Havelock,

who, he eaid, was his father. Witness then said he would have to take him in custody on the charge of forging the cheque. The prisoner begged not to be looked up, stating that he was suffering from drink when he did it. Witness found that there was no account in the bank to the name at the bottom of the cheque. By the prisoner : When witness interrogated prisoner in the morning he did not caution him. No doubt tbe prisoner bad been drinking, but he was sober on Saturday morning. William Douglas, speepfarmer, residing at Te Mahonga, deposed that up to about two years ggo be lived at Havelock. He knew of no John Douglas, or of any Other William Douglas besJdeo himself residing at Havelock. He had a brother named John here some three years ago, who was now in Taranaki. The handwriting on the cheque was not witness's nor his brother's, nor his father's. Witness never saw the prisoner till at the [Resident Magistrate's Courf. Qti R, Tylee, clerk in the Bank of AUatralaaia, deposed that Detective Grace presented the cheque produced and it was marked "no account" by the accountant. There was no account at the bank in the name of John Douglas. By the prisoner:—The cheque was badly filled in. The year was " 181 " instead of "1881." JVI. T. Philson, accountant in the Bank of New Zealand, »aye evidence that payment of a cheque might be refused through the informality in the date, but it would be paid to any constituent of tbe bank. By the prisoner : Witness noticed that the date of the cheque was incorrect. By his Honor: The cheque would most likely be passed it there were evidences that it was genuine. The prisoner made a lengthy statement in defence; , His Honor having summed up, the jury, without retiring, found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard hbof.