RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2159, 7 April 1870, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

This Day. (Before A. C, Strode, Esq., E.M.) UTTERING. James Grafton, on remand, was again placed in the dock, charged with this offence. The following evidence was given : James Cook, agent of the Bank of Otago at Port Uhabners, desired to make a correction of his previous evidence. In the Daily Times he was reported as having said that he did not see the prisoner at any time with reference to the words “ without recourse what he ac ually said was that he did not see the prisoner in reference to them, at the time he brought it to the Bank. Ho continued his evidence as follows ;—Some time ago the prisoner came to my office, and said he had bad news. I asked how so. He replied, “They are threatening to arrest me; but they can’t touch me. I got Brodrick to write the words on the bill. I asked him to do it. Look here,” he coutinued, “I saw him take up his pea and do it.” On another occasion he said to me—“ lam going to take my money out of the bank and hide it. I don’t care if I get three months for it, but I’ll have my money.” Crossexamined—When the prisoner brought in the bill for collection, I told him he could endorse it “ without recourse,” but I did not authorise him to do it; neither did I give instructions to Brodrick to do so. I never told prisoner to run away, but he told me he wished he had gone away|when he got the money first.

James Gibson withdrew the statement made by him in his previous deposition to the effect that the bill was signed in his store, because he had a doubt upon the point. Sarah Perry, wife of the prosecutor, remembered that on one morhiug early in September Gibson and prisoner came to her house. When the bill was being signed, she recollected there was a dispute as to where her husband should sign his name, but ultimately he signed first, and prisoner afterwards. The bill was not read over. William Graves gave unimportant evidence, George W. Brodrick, clerk at the Bank of Otago, Switzers,—ln September last 1 was clerk at the Port Chalmers branch of the bank I know the prisoner. I can’t remember the day on which 1 first saw the bill produced. Prisoner brought it into the bank, and lodged it for collection. Mr Cook and I were both standing at the counter. Mr Cook looked at it, and, to the best of my belief, handed it back to the prisoner, telling him that it must be endorsed by him (prisoner) at the top. Prisoner then endorsed it in the presence of both of us. He put it back on the counter, and Mr Cook looked at it, telling him to the effect that if he did not add the words “ without recourse ” to the bill the securities to Perry would be able to come back upon him in the event of its not being paid. Prisoner then asked mo if I would write the words. To the best of my belief Mr Cook was at the counter at this time ; at all events, ho was not more than two yards away. I can’t say whether the bill was entered at the time. I wrote the words, and prisoner immediately asked to have it discounted. I don’t know whether ho wanted it discounted at the time, or in a few days. Mr Cook informed him that he would not be able to discount it for two or three months, because it was a six months bill. Cross-examined : I should say that the prisoner is a man of indifferent education ; and writes badly. Mr Smith, addressing the Court for tho defence, submitted that in the first place no crime had been committed by anybody ; and in the next, the prisoner was utterly guiltless of what had been imputed to him. He thought it was a great pity that his learned friend did not look more into the law

of the subject of forging and uttering before be consented to put the prisoner in the degrading position he occupied, for had be done so, he would have found that to alter a document when once drawn—to alter it in such a way as to give it a different legal effect—and to make that alteration with intent to defraud was undoubted forgery, and any person uttering it with a similar intent was guilty of uttering. But that was not the case here. Here the bill of exchange was drawn out in the first instance in an imperfect state ; it was drawn in a state from which the law necessarily inferred that something else had to be done to make the bill a negotiable instrument. It was clear then, that although it was contrary to a previous understanding, it had been endorsed by prisoner to prevent others having recourse against himself, which might possibly furnish grounds for a civil action on the part of Perry for having made his position as endorsee different to what it was intended to be.

Mr Haworth replied. His Worship remarked that his duty was simply to say whether there was sufficient to put toe prisoner upon his trial. He was decidedly of opinion that the matter was one that required investigation in the higher Court, and there was no doubt that there was some evidence to go to the jury.^ The prisoner was committed for trial.

The most efficient government inspector— The public. The most difficult ascent—Getting np a subscription. The flowers of speech spring from the root of the tongue. When a maiden gets married she ends a miss-spent life. What goes most against a farmer’s grain. —His mowing machine. The best lock for firearms.—The one that will lock them all away forever. Be temperate in diet. Our first parents ate themselves out of house and home. The American Nation winds up a comment upon the Oxford-Harvard Boat Race by saying, “ What could have been done done with Boston if we had won ? There would have been no living in the saire country with her, and probably she would have dragged us into a foreign war before the year was out. Her pride is almost unendurable now; but with three Bostonians and a Concord man as victors over Oxf rd, she would have been altogether past bearing. We should have the spectacle that the World prefigured the other day, when it described Boston as being ninety-five millions of miles from the sun, slightly flattened at the poles, and revolving on its own axis once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds, thus causing the alternation of day and night.” Sir Edward Watkins, in giving an account of some of his canvassing experiences at the recent election for East Che-hire, told the following anecdote : —“ He had that day met a friend who had canvassed a voter in the division. This man said, ‘I am a Libera', if I am anything. In religi -u, I think I am a Churchman, if I am anything ; but the fact is I paint Egertou’s gales, and as you have not so many gates to paint as Egerton, I think I shall vote for the Tories.’” Why are handsome laundresses a sign of public rejoicing ?—Because they are belles wringing (bells ringing.) “Who took care of the babies ?” artlessly inquired a little girl, on bearing her mother say that all people were once children. What is the difference between a man going up-stairs and one looking up?— The one steps up stairs and the other stares up steps. . The following petition for liberty to keep pigs was lately received by the magistrates of Airdrie October the 15, 1869. “to the honour of the Magustras an Council of the Burgh of Airdrie gentlemen I wish that yous would Grant the requst of keeping two small pigs pleas Gentlemen I have a small Family and I am a delicate man myself and I wqud ba thankful to pay the Licensed for I wish yous would oblige me with keeping them down at the burn side an t I would keep hit'clean every day your most Humble servant Milliara Court off Stirling, Airdrie. ” There have been two rather important cases decided in the Queen’s Bench—one in which the election commissioners of Bridgewater were appealed against in their conviction, and in which they have been defeated, I confess I do not see the use of an election commission sitting at all in judgment, if they are liable the next day to have their decisions reversed and themselves mulcted in expenses. The betting-house keepers, such as Mr Wright, have had their conviction maintained, and thus a most serious blow has been given to this honorable and lucrative profession. All the same, I doubt not but that many a foolish man will be saved from going to the bad.