RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT PORT CHALMERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3508, 21 May 1874, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT PORT CHALMERS.

Thursday, Mat 21. (Before (Captain Thomson andj O’Donoghue, Breach of Prison Regulations.— Chaa. ihomson was charged by Hubert Ferguson, overseer m charge of the prisoners, with communicating with one of them in the railwa,y carnage.—Prisoner pleaded not guilty. —Hubert Ferguson, overseer, said he was in charge of the prisoners about four o’clock yesterday afternoon in the railway carriages. He saw the accused in company with some other men whom he recognised as discharged prisoners. The accused passed ap and down the platform and stopped at a carriage where there was a prisoner named George Johnson, from Auckland, under a sentence ot penal servitude for life, when he pretended to be talking to his mate, and said “You have only two months more to serve: I will see you when you come out.”—By the prisoner: Witness was not in the same carriage, in ore were no other passengers,, in the compartment with the prisoners.—By the Bench: the prisoner Johnson expects to get out m the course of two or three months, on account of good conduct, he having served over ten years. One of the warders noticed Johnson holding up two fingers when the accused had spoken. The prisoners are not allowed to speak ; if they do, they are punished. The accused has undergone a sentence in Auckland with some of the priaouers here, as the Auckland prisoners recognise the accused as being with them iu the Auckland gaol,—John Anderson said be was m the company of accused about four o’clockafternoon on the railway platform Ihe accused was talking to him about going to work at the tunnel, and was not talking to the prisoners. He was close to him, and did not hear him mention those words. Witness had been in Fort Chalmers for the feat six days, but had not been at work. By Sergeant Neil: Witness was in prison for one mouth about three or four years ago. He was to go to work at the tunnel this morn- ! n S- Accused was sentenced to two weeks’ hard labor; Maintenance, —J. B. Robertson was charged by Jessie Robertson with neglecting to support her and his family. Ordered to pay Li per week.