MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 212, 12 February 1875, Page 3

MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

CHRISTCHURCH. Thursday, February 11. (Before G. L. Mellish, Esq., R.M., his Worship the Mayor, L. Walker, Esq., and Colonel Packe, J.P.’s.) APPLICATION FOR PROTECTION OF EARNINGS.

Maria Leighton applied for an order of protection for her earnings. MrJ. S. Williams appeared for the complainant, and Mr Garrick for defendant. Mr Garrick said he consented on the part of the defendant to an arrangement being made in order to avoid further exposure. Mr J. S. Williams said that he had all his witnesses subpoenaed, and would prefer to go on with the evidence. Ultimately the case was adjourned for a short while to see if an arrangement could not be made.

When the case was re-called, Mr Williams said that his client was willing to forego the allowance on the condition that defendant allowed her to retain the furniture and effects and paid £94 debts already contracted. An order to be given for the protection of plaintiff’s future earnings. Mr Garrick thought' that this was a case that should have been heard in chambers. He considered that the Bench might express a wish to the reporters that the particulars of the case should not be reported. His Worship said he could not make such an order. Defendant—Oh, report it by all means. ASSAULT. John McKeown was summoned for assaulting Mary McKeown. Mr Garrick appeared for complainant; M.r O’Neill for defendant. There was a cross summons between these parties, which was heard at the same time. The complainant said that on the 2nd February her husband beat her and pulled her about. She then left the house, and met a drayman, who said he was going down to take the things away. She went back to the house and proceeded to collect some things of her own, when her husband again assaulted her, throwing her down and kicking her, and pulled one of her fingers out of j oint. The drayman pulled her finger back again into its place. In the evening her husband again beat and kicked her. Witness had been married before, and her husband had spent all her money. The defendant was up at this Court about nine weeks age, when he was bound over to keep the peace. Cross-examined by Mr O’Neill—l had no axe or tomahawk in my hand on the day in question. I did not hit my husband with a hoe that day. I promised the carter that I would keep quiet while the furniture was being removed. I did not interfere with Falloon (the drayman) when he was removing the furniture. I swear I did not strike my husband that day, bnt I threw some cowdung at him when he was with the drayman. This was complainant’scase. Bobert Falloon, called by Mr O’Neill, said he remembered the day in question. He went up with a dray to remove some furniture from McKeown’s house. He heard a great noise when removing a chest of drawers, and McKeown fell from a blow he received from his wife. Mrs McKeown had promised him to keep qniet while he was removing the furniture. He was taking the furniture on to the dray when he heard a noise of breaking glasses in one of the rooms. Mrs McKeown was then alone in the house. When he went to fetch the second load they met Mrs McKeown, who pulled some stones or clods from under her cloak, and pelted her husband along the road. Cross-examined —I took the goods to Clifford and Roper’s. I swear McKeown ran away, and she followed pelting him. I pulled her finger in, but I do not know how that accident occurred. Jos. Hadley remembered seeing McKeown and his wife at New Brighton on the day mentioned. Went to McKeown's house to help load the dray. Heard the breaking of glass in the house. McKeown ran out and said bis wife bad hit him on the back with an axe. On another occasion witness saw Mrs McKeown hit her husband with a hammer. Mrs Hadley was called, and made a long unintelligible statement which caused a good deal of laughter in the court, Her principal statement was that she “ knew the law.” It was at last elicited that she was not present when the furniture was removed. The plaintiff was then sworn, and stated that his wife left him about six weeks ago, after he had been bound over to keep the peace. She came back again, but gave him no notice either of her departure or return. On the day he wanted to remove the furniture she had a tomahawk in her hand, which he wrenched away from her. She interfered with the removal of the furniture. Never struck or kicked his wife. His wife threw clods at him and he ran away. She had also threatened to burn the house over his head. She had actually attempted to do so last November.

This was McKeown’s case. Mr Garrick called a witness who was present when Mrs McKeown went to take her boxes away. Her husband wanted to look at the contents, and she would not allow him to do so. McKeown then said that be knew his wife had a lemonade bottle which she intended to throw ac him, and he rushed at her, threw her down in the bedroom, and f - knelt upon her. ■ In cross-examination by Mr O’Neil the I witness said he did not see defendant strike her, but she threw a stick at him. By Mr Garrick—-McKeown threw his wife down a tecoud time,

After Mr O’Neill addressed the Bench in favor of his client, his Worship said he was afraid both cases had arisen out of the peculiar temper of the complaint. They would be dismissed. John West was charged with assaulting his wife, Maria West. Defendant did not appear, and complainant told the Court that she had seen her husband that morning, who said he was going away, and she would not see him again. His Worship ordered a warrant to be issued for the arrest of defendant. RESCUING A COW. The charge against H. Freeman, for rescuing a cow, was withdrawn by leave of the Court. CIVIL CASES. [Before G. L, Mellish, Esq, R.M.] H. Klahn v T. Lennon, claim £SO; Mr Slater for plaintiff; judgment by default for amount claimed, with costs £2 6s. Saunders and Henderson v John Stewart, claim £6 15s Id ; judgment by default for amount claimed, with costs 375. H. Fuhrmann vS. Day, claim £3 8s ; judgment by default for amount claimed, with costs 10s. J. Hopper v C, James, claim £7 4s 9d ; judgment by default for amount claimed, with costs 13s. T. J. Gee v M. Rogers, claim £4 9s ; judgment by default for amount claimed, with costs 9s. W, Priston v R, Jones, claim £9 16s 9d ; judgment by default for amount claimed, with costs 14. J, Treganown vJ. McKenzie, claim £7 Os 6d; tendered £4 10s; judgment for amount claimed, with costs 14s. Friday, February 12. [Before G. L. Mellish, Esq, R.M.] DRUNK AND ILLEGALLY ON PREMISES. Peter McDonald, arrested by sergeant Kennedy for being drunk and illegally on the premises of Mr J. Reid, Hereford street, at forty minutes past one o’clock this morning, was fined 20s. ILLEGALLY ON PREMISES. William McMillan, Maurice Power, Wm. Noble, and E. Hogan, were arrested by sergeant Kennedy for being found illegally in the stables of the Borough Hotel that morning at five minutes past three o’clock. Mr Priston, landlord of the hotel, stated that none of the accused had received permission from him to sleep in the stables. Two of them had slept in his house on one occasion, and he believed that two beds had been taken in his house the previous night by two of the accused. He knew that two of them were hard-working men, who had only lately come in from the country. Had the men knocked he would have got up and let them in, as he was very much afraid of his stables being set on fire some night if this practice continued. His Worship administered a severe caution to the accused and discharged them. LYTTELTON. Wednesday, February 11. [Before W. Donald, Esq, R.M.] ASSAULT, John Johnson and Wilson, two seamen on board the \Yressel Castle, was charged with assaulting another seaman named John Peterson. John Peterson stated that both defendants came on board drunk and assaulted him. The Bench gave Wilson the benefit of the doubt, and fined Johnson 20s, or in default seven days. CIVIL CASES. Mrs Baker v The Superintendent. Mr Joynt appeared on behalf of the Superintendent ; Mrs Baker conducted her own case. This was an action to recover £9 Os 6d, for a parcel lost on the railway in November, 1873. Mrs Baker made a statement relative to her loss. In cross-examination Mrs Baker stated that the articles lost had been lying at the Government Buildings and in the Lyttelton Times office, and that some silk dresses of considerable value, and other articles, were spoiled. A number of witnesses were called, and fron their evidence it seemed that the parcel had been put by accident on board the Rangatira steamer, and sent to Dunedin. One of the porters, Adams, said he went and got the parcel from the steamer, and it was opened in his presence in order that it might be identified as Mrs Baker’s. Mr Hillier, the chief porter at the railway, proved that the contents of the parcel when recovered were compared with a list given by Mrs Baker from memory and found to correspond exactly, with the exception of a lady’s collar and four small ties. There was no address on the parcel when it came back from Dunedin in the Rangatiia. The articles in the package were in good condition, with the exception of a little mould on a crinoline petticoat, and Mrs Baker made no complaint till some after when she complained that some things lost and spoilt. Mr Packard corroborated the evidence given. The Bench gave judgment for plaintiff for £l, plaintiff to pay her own costs at the same time severely animadverting on Mrs Baker’s evident attempt to extort money from the Government. The Bench stated they gave the verdict, as no doubt Mrs Baker had suffered some inconvenience through her clothes having been sent to Dunedin. Rosa Gardiner v Saunders—This was an action to recover certain goods detained by defendant for a debt owing to him for board and lodging for the Zelinski troupe; nonsuited with costs. refusal op duty. Charles Abbott, Geo Robertson, Charles Brown and Archibald Thompson, seamen, for refusing to go to sea in the barque Queensland, were sentenced to 10 weeks’ imprisonment with hard labor. BREACH OP THE NEGLECTED AND CRIMINAL CHILDREN’S ACT. Ernest Meade, a boy of ten years of age, was charged by Sergeant Macguire with wandering about the public streets without any visible means of existence. Sergeant-Major O’Grady gave evidence that prisoner’s mother was continually drunk and not fit to take charge of children, and also that she frequented brothels. The Bench ordered the child to be sent to the Industrial School at Burnham for six years, to be brought up as a member of the Church of England. EDUCATION RATE. Superintendent of Canterbury ▼ Mrs Meade; judgment for plaintiff £1 10s, costs 9s. KAIAPOI. Thursday, February. 11. [Before C. Whitefoord, Esq., R.M.] DRUNK AND DISORDERLY. Michael Layden, arrested by Constable Haldane on the previous evening on the swing bridge, was fined 10s and costs of the court.