MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 95, 19 September 1874, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

Saturday, September 19. [Before C. C. Bowen, Esq., R.M.] DRUNK AND DISORDERLY. Robert Park and Jesse Green, for drunkenness, were each fined 10s. John Watson, for drunkenness and indecent exposure, was fined 20s. ASSAULT. Wm Falloon, on remand for assault, was again brought up. Mr Thomas appeared for the accused. Mr Seager, steward of the Siinnyside Asylum, stated that the complainant had been a patient at the asylum on three different occasions. He had daily opportunities while she was there of observing her conduct. When in her fits of insanity, she at times exhibited violent outbursts of temper ; but in her right mind she was very quiet. Her husband used to visit her, and behaved very kindly to her. They seemed to be very fond of each other, and she was always very anxious to go home. She was a woman that required to be kindly treated. By Mr Thomas.—Mr Falloon always seemed very kind to his wife when he came to the asylnm, and repeatedly brought presents to her. . _ . Mrs Emma Peterson said she knew the parties in this case. On one occasion a boy came to her, and told her for mercy sake to come to Mrs Falloon, as she was about to be confined, and there was no doctor or midwife there, and Mr Falloon would not send for either. On one occasion during that time the witness asked him to go into his wife's room and speak kindly to her. He went in and said, " So help my G , woman are you not dead yet;" and he also threatened his wife that he would give her a long spell in the asylum. In cross-examination by Mr Thomas, this witness said that she did not agree with Mr Falloon to act as midwife on that occasion. She did stay with Mrs Falloon afterwards, and did some cooking. She also made.a dress, but had not been paid for those services yet. She did not give her evidence in a spirit of revenge. Why she appeared was that she saw the case in the Globe the previous night, and only thought she was doing her duty in coming there that day. To the Bench—l am quite certain that defendant used the expression to his wife that I have stated.

Mrs Falloon, re-called by the Benot, stated that on the day she was ill her husband told her to get up and get the men's breakfast. She got up and put the kettle on, but had to lie down again, and coald not get her clothes off. She begged him to go for a nurse, but he replied that she was to be sure to send four men's dinner down to where they were working. She then sent the boy for a neighbour, but that person wra unwell. She then sent for Mrs Peterson (last witness), but in the meantime the other neighbor had come, and when Mrs Peterson arrived the baby was born. After that she sent for her husband, and he came to the house and only commenced to feed the calves. The first thing she saw of her husband afterwards was when he returned from Southbridge with a nurse. In cross-examination, the witness stated that this happened four years ago. When her husband used to come to the asylum he sometimes upbraided her. She was always anxious to return home to her children. Why she never complained to Mr "Seager was, that she was ashamed to acknowledge to him the manner that she was in the habit of being treated. When her husband came to the house in the present case he was slightly under the influence of liquor. He brought a friend with him, and wanted her to make a bed for him. She told him she only had beds for their own family. She spoke very quietly and did not blackguard him at the time. There were no blankets in the house but what were covering her own and children's beds. Her husband then called her a b h, and she then told him that she could not call him a husband, but that he was a drunken sot. Her husbaDd then went out with the man, and returned in a little time and stood over her in the bed, and said, " Oh ! you wretch, I could kill you," and called her very improper names. He had not laid his hands on her up to this time. She got up and put her clothes on, and said she would go for a policeman* and her husband then caught hold of her and pushed her out through the porch, and said, " You go, and if you come back I'll cut your throat, and burn the house down." He knocked her down the last time he put her in Sunnyside. Her boy, who saw his father do this, was only five years old at the time.

The boy, re-called and examined by Mr Thomas, stated that he remembered hia father knocking his mother down. They were living at Malvern at the time. He remembered the house they were then living in. Saw his father hit his mother that day. The cause of it was that his mother did not get the tea ready quick enough. Father knocked his mother down with his fist "on top of him (witness), and the baby. Hia mother had been talking to him (witness) about this, and said his father had knocked her down.

Mr Thomas called'Robert Falloon, who said lie had often been in his brother's plac. They (his brother and wife) seemed to get along very well together, but his sister-in-law was very quarrelsome. He had known, her to be very violent at times. She was a very quiet nice woman when those fits were not on her.

After Mr Thomas had addressed the Bench,

His Worship said that in adjourning the case the previous day, he wished an opportunity to be given to have all the evidence in the case gone into. Under all the circumstances now he felt assured that the woman had been cruelly illtreated. Mrs Peterson's, evidence was most clear and straightforward, and there was nothing before the Court to show that she had any other motive in coming forward than a feeling of duty. It was a shocking case, and he did not wonder at the complainant going to the Asylum, aa such treatmeut in her weak state was enough to send any woman there. With regard to>

the immediate matter of assault, he would not have taken very great notice of that, but under all,the circumstances,he would order the accused to find two substantial securities of £SO each to keep the peace towards his wife for twelve months. Mr Thomas asked his worship to lessen the amount of security; but this his worship declined to do. His Worship here called Mrs Falloon forward, and trusted she would endeavour, during the next twelve months, to restrain any ebullution of temper towardo her husband. . LYTTELTON. Fbiday, September 18. [Before W. Donald, Esq, R.M.] DRUNKENNESS AND INDECENT EXPOSURE. John Loudon, arrested by constable McGowan, charged with this offence, was fined 10s, or forty-eight hours' imprisonment. " REFUSAL OF DUTY. Daniel Cameron, a seaman of the ship Carisbrooke Castle,' was charged by Captain Freebody with this offence, and sentenced to two weeks' imprisonment. CIVIL CASE. General Government v Elsdon, master of Hereford ; claim £9 6s 8d; case settled out of Court.