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Evening Post, Issue 197, 25 September 1865, Page 2

At the late sitting of the Supreme Court at Auckland, there was a remarkable case of mistaken identity. James Newcastle, a member of the 3rd Waikato Kegiment, w»a charged with wilfully firing a loaded gun at a sergeant and picquet party at Pokeno, on the 11th of February last. Two of the men were wounded, and they both, together with the sergeant in command, svrc-re distinctly and positively to the prisoner as the man who had fired at them . Newcastle in vain protested his innocenceAt the trial, however j it was proved beyond a doubt, that on the very day on which he was accused of .firing at the picquet at Pokeno, he was actually at Cambridge, a distance of eighty-six miles, one which could not be travelled under two days on horseback. The entry on the military storekeeper's books, made up month by month, proved his personal presence at Cambridge on the 11th February. He was, too, between the Ist and 20th of the same month a witness on a case of courtmartial, and as . such was under military surveillance ; aqd the officers of his company swore positively that he had never been missing from the ranks during the month of February. The prisoner was at once acquitted. Mr. James Riley, late mate of the schooner Emerald Isle, which was wrecked-, at Port Underwood during the last severe H'.ile, while bringing that vessel's boat round to Picton on the 19th instant, saw a vessel, apparently a barque, resembling the Rangoon, nnder jury mast. He was at the time off Pullunder Point, the barque? evidently making for Wellington. It was blowing much too hard from N".W. to attempt to board her. She was observed suddenly to shorten sail, when a heavy squall struck the vessel and she was lost > sight of about 6 p.m. — Marlborough Press,. Sept. 23.