A PREITY PAIR.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1258, 9 April 1886, Page 3

A PREITY PAIR.

The own correspondent of the Wei* liugton ‘ Post’ gives some interesting particulars of a sly-grog case heard at Paikakeriki last week in which Frank Poff was mulcted in a penalty of LSO, or three months’ hard labor. To fully appreciate the beauties of the case (says, the ‘ Pos ’) a shprt history of the'parties concerned and their ante* cedents is necessary. Briefly, then, Poff has earned for himself a very uni enviable notoriety in various parts of the Colony, through his connection with certain turf transactions. The principle witness, Mary Burke, is also a celebrity, for it is said that it was at her shanty that the unfortunate men concerned in tho Nenthorn tragedy, in Otago, procured the liquor that drove them to the quarrel that ended fatal ly to one of their number. These two most undesirable residents each wanted to have the other convicted of sly grog-wiling, and, driven from the field, Poff undertook to clear away his rival in the business by taking her two gallons of whisky and offering to sell it her, thereby providing the means to get a case against her. At first the woman Burke refused to have anything to do with the whisky, but after wards she bought a porti m of the two gallons, for which she paid 15s, in pres senca of a witness. Poft, fearing that he had put • himself in the woman’s power, then offered to shout, and paid for three drinks, which were served out of what he had just sold to Mrs Burke. Each now thought they had the other safe, but they reckoned without their host. At any rate, Poff did, for the whole transaction was soon nude known to Constable Hoehe, whp at once proceeded against Poff, with the result stated. Poff, in crossexamining Mary Burke, asked her if she had not gived 1.60 to have a man murdered down south, but Mary indignautly replied in an emphatic negative.