MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 865, 3 April 1877, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

CHRISTCHURCH

Tuesday, April 3.

(Before Gr. L. Lee and W. D. Carruthers,

Esqs, J.P.’s.)

Drunk and Disorderly.— J. H. El stub, arrested for drunkenness, was fined ss, and Is cab lure. James Parr and John Johnson were each fined ss. Six inebriates, who appeared for the"first time, were each fined ss. A first offender, charged with being drunk and committing an act of exposure at the railway station, was fined 10s. Soliciting- Prostitution. Margaret Ellison, charged with being drunk and soliciting prostitution in the public streets after twelve o’clock on Sunday morning, was fined £l, in default one month’s imprisonment. Elizabeth Howell, charged with the latter offence, was similarly fined, with like default. Stealing prom the Person. —William John Andrews was charged with having stolen a purse containing £1 6s from Win. Young. When arrested by Sergeant Hughes in High street, accused said he had no purse, and was innocent. After arriving at the depot, the sergeant saw accused put his hand into his left trousers pocket, take out something, and try to put it up his coat sleeve. On searching him immediately afterwards the purse, produced was found in his hand where it had fallen. The purse contained a pawn ticket for a coat pawned by the prosecutor at Stewart’s pawn shop, two threepenny bits, and five coppers. The prosecutor, called, stated that accused had worked in the same employ with witness. On Saturday they were drinking together, and he believed accused saw him home. The same night when he awoke he missed a purse in which he had a sovereign and some silver, and which also contained a pawn ticket and a letter. The purse, letter, and pawn ticket produced were those he missed. When witness spoke to accused of his loss, he said he knew nothing about the purse or money, and that others were with them that night. Did not authorise accused to take the property. A witness, called, gave evidence of accused spending money freely the previous day at the Central Hotel. Each time he paid for the drinks he turned round and said he had a secret place for keeping his money. Saw him once take money out of a purse. The one produced was the same. In reply to the Bench, accused said when he went into his employer’s place on Sunday night Young was lying in the bakehouse drunk. The purse and a pipe were lying alongside of him. He (accused) picked the purse up, but it had no money in it. Told the prosecutor afterwards that he had taken the purse, but it contained no money. The Bench told accused they had no doubt'but that ho had stolen the purse, he would be sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, with hard labor. Abusive Language. —The adjourned case, Emma Carter v Emma Morris, was further adjourned until Wednesday morning. Sodomy. G-eorgo Hundley, a man of respectable appearance, was brought up on remand, charged with an offence of this nature. Mr Izard appeared for the accused. When arrested at Glentui, on the 21th of March, by Detective Walker, accused said, “Good God, I never could have done such a thing.” The information had been laid by that detective, from some words he had overheard in the passage of the Central Hotel between the prosecutor and accused, on the 22nd March, and the circumstance of overhearing the barmaid subsequently order the accused out of the hotel. After the evidence had been taken, accused reserved his defence, and was fully committed for trial at the ensuing criminal session of the Supreme Court.