MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 614, 7 June 1876, Page 2

MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

CHRISTCHURCH. Wednesday, June 8. (Before Cr. L. Mellish, Esq, E.M.)

Drunkenness. —An inebriate, who appeared for the first time, was fined 5s ; Charles Trounce was fined 10s; Alfred Por'.er was fined 10s.

Vagrancy. James Wheeler, a •wellknown offender at Port Chalmers, Omaru, and Naseby, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with nard labour for vagrancy. Arson.- Joseph Catchpole and Margaret Catchpole were brought up on a charge of wilfully and maliciously burning, on the 10th May, the Burnham Hotel. Detective Kirby deposed that he had that morning arrested the female prisoner on a charge of arson. Mr O’Neil, who appeared for both the prisoners, asked for a remand, as Mr Joynt, who was to appear for the prisoners and Mr Garrick, were not present. Mr Garrick was to prosecute, and both he and Mr Joynt were engaged at the Supreme Court. [At this stage of the proceedings the male prisoner fainted dead off, and had to be accommodated with a chair.] He would therefore ask for a remand. Inspector Feast objected to any remand. The witnesses were all ready, and had come a long distance, and he saw no reason why it should now be remanded. So far as Mr Garrick was concerned, he knew nothing about it; he had certainly received no instruction from him to prosecute, but he believed he would be present to watch the case on behalf of the insurance offices. Ultimately the case was adjourned until ten o’clock to-morrow morning, bail being allowed for both prisoners’ appearance.

LYTTELTON. Wednesday, June 7. ("Before W. Donald, Esq, E.M.] Larceny. James Henry Brokeusha, saloon cook of the ship Waipa, was accsued of stealing four saucepans and a knife and steel from the ship Waipa. Mr H. N. Nalder appeared for the defence, From evidence given by a number of witnesses it appeared that accused, who was passengers’ cook, had taken away four saucepans and a knife and steel from the ship’s galley on Monday last, and had sold them on shore. Accused had been paid off from the ship on Monday. For the defence Mr Nalder called Charles Scott, a seaman on board the ship, who stated that he boarded with accused in Loudon, and that he had borrowed some money to buy articles for use in the galley. Accused was a butcher by trade, and brought four or five knives a steel and a cleaver belonging to himself on board. A few days after he came on board, he told him he had bought some saucepans with the money he borrowed, and during the whole voyage he used to keep them in a berth occupied jointly by witness and accused, and he heard accused ask the ship’s steward if he would buy the saucepans before he took them ashore at Lyttelton. Atter hearing corroborative evidence, Mr H. N. Nalder addressed the Court, stating that accused having a sister in Wellington he thought when he bought the saucepans they might be useful to her out here as well as during ihe voyage. He thought that the matter should have been further inquired into before accused had been arrested. The Bench dismissed tha charge stating tbit prisoner left the Court without the slightest stain on his character,