SUPREME COURT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2288, 6 September 1870, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSION. This Day. (Before Mr Justice Chapman ) HORSE stealing. John Gough was indicted for having, at Switzers, on the 11th July, stolen a horse, saddle and bridle, the property of one Walter MTvor. The facts as stated were these : The prisoner was engaged by the prosecutor on the Ist July, as a bullock driver. On the 7th of July, Mr MTvor sont him with a bullock team to the station of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company at Mataura, for a load of oats, giving him at the same time, the horse, saddle, and bridle, the subject of this charge, and a cheque for Id 6, which formed the subject of another charge against him. Prisoner wont as far as the accommodation house at the Mataura bridge, and there began drinking. He went away in the direction of the company’s station, but returned in an hour, never having gone there. On the 11th, he was sent for the oats, but when he readied the Mataura Hotel he took to drinking. He offered to sell the horse to the barman, who would not buy it, he then offered it to a man named M'Gillivray for LL2, and after some negociation sold it to him for LS 10s. When arrested, he admitted having sold the horse and cashed the cheque. The defence he made was that he committed the offences with which he was now charged, while under the influence of drink. The jury, without retiring, returned a verdict of guilty. The evidence on the second charge of stealin" the cheque for Ll6 was equally conclusive, and the jury, without retiring, brought him in guilty. In answer to the usual question, the prisoner said he was 23 years of age.

His Honor,passing-said:— Jess 6 by the .calendar that ' born in ■the country.’ lam very sorry that anyone born in this country should be brought before this Court. It is a very rare occurrence, and it is much to their credit, that native youths are very seldom brought before courts of justice. There is less excuse for persons born here; for living is much more easy here than it is in the older countries of Europe ; for there persons are often driven into crime before they come out. With regard to stealing animals, the law requires a higher punishment than for stealing other things. In a country like this it is a crime which the law considers of more magnitude, because horses and cattle being exposed in open places are more open to thieves than other property which can bo closely guarded. Another circumstance in both these cases is that the crime in each is a breach of trust. On the first indictment yon will lie kept at hard labor for two years, and on the second, one year with hard labor —in all three years. STEALING A WATCH. John A. M‘Demid was indicted for having, at Dunedin, on the IBtli June, stolen a silver watch, the property of one Charles Docherty. The facts of this case were very simple. The prisoner made two attempts to steal the watch, ihe first time at the Exchange Hotel, Walker street, where he was detected by the landlord and turned out of the house. Prosecutor received the watch again, and immediately afterwards left the house. The next morning he agaiu missed the watch, and it was traced by the police to the shop of Mr Davis, pawnbroker, Princes street, where it bad been pledged by the prisoner, who gave a fake name, and pretended to be a teacher staying at the Criterion. The jury retired at a quarter-past eleven, and returned at five with a verdict of guilty. Sentence, nine months’ hard labor OBTAINING GOODS BY FALSE PRETENCES. Joseph Gibbs was found guilty of this offence, and sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment. SENTENCES. David Storey, against whom there were three previous convictions, was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment ; Samuel Taylor, two years’; and John Paterson, eighteen months’.