MAYOR’S COURT.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2621, 12 July 1871, Page 2

MAYOR’S COURT.

This Day. (Before his Worship the Mayor and the Hon. Dr. Buchanan, J.P.) ALLEGED ARSON. The hearing of the case Bogina v. Reichelt was proceeded with. The following evidence was given:— Harris Fricdlich, storekeeper and hotelkeeper, had had 16 years experience in the fancy goods trade. He was in prisoner’s shop three or four days before the lire. He was in the shop for three quarters of an hour pricing various goods anil went into the office and was there about ten minutes. From what he saw of the stock he believed it could not be worth less than L 2,000. The stock seemed to him not to be a padded stock. When in the shop witness expressed a desire to see abettor class of goods than he had been looking at, and the prisoner took him into the office and there showed him the better goods. Witness remarked to prisoner that he seemed to have converted bis office into a warehouse. Reichelt was no particular friend of witness ; he did not believe luhad been in witness’s place more than five times during the last five years. He could swear positively from what he saw of the stock on the occasion referred to L 773 was a ridiculously low valuation. iSince the fire he had hem asked to examine the remains of tne stock to see whether it was a padded stock. He found goods on the very top shelving, closely packed he found, for instance, albums packed six deep, which, in a padded stock, might have been spread over six times the space, by placing merely a single album in the front and leaving a vacant space behind. He also found on the shelves close to the ground behind the counters, where they would not be

seen, China dolls iu their original packages closely packed, and no room left between them. He found no dummies of any kind. By Mr Smith: While in the shop he did not place any value in pound*, shillings, and pence on the stock. He formed his estimate this-wise :—He considered that it was a capital, good stock of goods ; but he formed no estimate of its value. He m 'ant to say that as far as his observation went, he considered it a capital, good stock. His opinion of the stock was formed from the general appearance of the shelves, not from any actual examination. If he wished to stock a place with goods, as lleichelt’s shop appeared to be stocked, ho could not do so under L2OOO. He would not undertake to swear what he saw iu lleichelt’s place was worth L2OOO or anything like it; he would not swear to any particular sum unless he took stock himself. For the stock as he saw it, he would give from LI2OO to Ll-iOO, buying it in the lump without going into detail—that is to say if the stock was what it appeared to be. Lachman Hayman had had |lO years’ experielice in the fancy goods trade He had had tranctions with the prisoner du.ing the time he had been m business here ; h's character during that time had been atraghtforward, and ins business transactions satisfactory. He duly met his liabilities. Was in his shop about three weeks before the fife. >V itness generally looked around the shop of a customer, with a view to seeing how the place was stocked. From what he saw, he took the stock to be worth about L2OOO. He considered it impossible to estimate the value of the stock as it originally stood by what remained after the fire. In looking at the stock, he had no suspicion of “dummies,” and did not look for them ; there might have been “dummies,’’ and they might have escaped his observation. L. .Mendelsohn corroborated the previous witness’s evidence as to the value of the stock in Ib.ichelt’s before the fire, and as to the unreliability of Messrs Hart and Boyes’ estimates. u company with Mr Carr, he had made a valuation of the goods found in Goldammer’s possession; and their value they estimated to be L 222 13s 4d. [l.eft sitting.]