A HARD CASE.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2652, 17 August 1871, Page 3

A HARD CASE.

A police case which has just occurred at Clyde calls for notice. About a fortnight a young man named Quiuu was ; nested on a charge of drunkenness, and sentenced to the usual twenty four hours’ imp; nonrnent. At the expiration of that period he was re-arrested, and charged whh injuring a mare, the prope;ty of Mr Williams, the keeper of the Clyde Pound. There was, we are informed, another charge preferred. The prisoner was again remanded the police, it is supposed, not having yet “got their case ” ready. It may here be stated that the accused is a digger, who has always home an excellent character on the Hog1, irn , at Kingston, and at Tinker’s. He came t) Clyde on businc.-ff, riding his own horse, spent a little money, and became inebriated. While in a state of intoxication, he went to Williams’s licensed house (adjoining the Pound) which his known as the Ancient Briton and Leaning R'-'ck f'otol—a large name for a very small establishment. He put his own horse in the stable, and fed asleep in the stall. He had no recollection of ever having seen the mare in question. The accused was obliged to part with his horse, saddle, and bridle, in order to procure means to pay counsel to defend him. Mr W. W. Wilson appeared for the accused and from tie outsit declared the police had not an iota oj eudence against his client. After four remands andadetention in gaol of about afortniglit, the prisoner was discharged, the Resident Magistrate (Mr V. Pykc) seeing that there was “no This is a severe sample of “ What may happen to a man in Otago.” Quinn has not only had to part with a horse, saddle, &c., which together cost him about LIT, hut has lost a fortnight’s work, and been placed in the degrading position of a person charged with a most abominable crime. The evidence was purely circumstantial, and so disjointed and inconclusive as to bo valueless. Mr Wilson, in addressing the Court, commented strongly on the unseemly pertinacity displayed by the Sergeant of Police in first charging the accused with one offence, and tin, n ••roceediig on a diffmr.it and more serious charge on such flimsy evidence. It may be mentioned as a sad illustration of the neglect and ignorance in which some children, quite near our towns, are allowed to grow up, that a boy, about 13 years of age, who was called as a witness in the above disgusting case, declared he was unable to read or write, and could not give an intelligent reply when asked by the Magistrate, “ Who made you ?” However, he had heard of pjacea called I'holl" and “heaven," and unclarstood that if he told lies he wou’d probably be sent to the first named warm place. It is high time that some parents in Otago were compelled to send their offspring to school. —Cromwell Ary us.