MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1543, 29 January 1879, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

a _ 1 CHBISTCHURCH. i Wednesday, Januaby 29. t [Before 0. Whitefoord, Esq., R.M.J 8 Dbunk and Disoedebly.—James Nanl karris, alias Mapes, was charged with being I drunk and disorderly, resisting Constable McDevitt in the execution of his duty, and 3 also with vagrancy and soliciting alms. The i evidence of' Jamei Burbery, residing in t Colombo street, showed that the preceding e evening the prisoner, with a plausible tale of i distress, obtained a shilling from him for the n purpose of getting food, as he said he waa starving. He watched him into the Al Hotel, and saw him apparently in altercation » with the barman. The prosecutor accosted him, and demanded his shilling back, and the prisoner gave him one, but it was not the a s:ime coin he received from him when ho said • hr> was penniless. The witness subsequently •) gave liim in(o custody as a vagrant, and for . obtaining money under false pretences. The e constable, who arrested the prisoner, said the 3 violence offered was more in the shape of 1 passive resistance, and a determination not to "■ accompany him to the Police Depot, than of 3 an ordinary assault. The prisoner said he 1 did not remember obtaining the money from ' Mr Burbery. Ho had only just come out 9 from serving a sentence in Aldington gaol, j and had something to drink. A very little liquor overcame hiin, and his enforced abe stinence from drink had no doubt caused a the drink to have a more than usually B powerful effect on him. His Worship told s the prisoner there were eight previous convio- ], t'ons against him. It was evident that he was L a lazy vagrant who would not work, and an j accomplished beggar to boot, who preferred loafing on other people for a subsistence rather than do any work himself. He would have to go to gaol for threo months,- with bird labor.

Embezzlement. Peter James Fowler, who had been remanded from the 25th inst., was charged with embezzling the sum of 2a 2d, the property of the Q-overnment. Mr Inspector Hiekson said Mr Duncan, who was not in the Court, had rec.nved instructions to prosecute on the part of the Government, and Mr Izard appeared for the prisoner, who is a guard on the Railway. There were two other charges against the prisoner of embezzling Is and 2s on different occasions. Alexander Christian Fife, an accountant in the railway department, said that the prisoner was a guard on the Kaiapoi line. His duty was to supply passengers getting in at intermediate stations with tickets which he tore out of a printed book which lie was supplied with for the purpose. The prisoner's duty was to settle with the station-master every night, returning the book at the same time, which was sent to him (witness) every four weeks. The only entry in the prisoner's book on January 3rd was for a ticket from Mandeville to East Oxford, but it was never issued. There was no entry of an excess fare of 2s 2d between Jackson's Road and West Eyroton on that day. Thomas David Edmund's, chief clerk in the General manager's office described the duties of the prisoner to consist, amongst other things, of issuing excess faro tickets to passengers between intermediate stations, receiving the fare in return. Charles Lewis, a laborer working at West Eyreton, deposed to giving the prisoner 2s 2d on January 3rd as the fare from Jackson's road to West Eyreton. He received no ticket in return. James Watt, being sworn, remembered travelling on the Kaiapoi and Eyreton line on January 3rd. On that day he remembered the last witness i getting into the train at a side station at Jackson's road. The guard asked him where he was going to, and he said Eyreton. The previous witness gave the prisoner 2s 6d, receiving 4d change, but no paper ticket. Witness tiavelled on the same line further on the same day, and gave the prisoner 2s, receiving no excess ti 'ket in excess ticket in exchange. On the Bth inst. the witness travelled from Kaiapoi to Ohoka, leaving Kaiapoi by the 8.25 train. Having taken out no ticket at the booking office he paid the guard one shilling as his fare, but got no ticket from him. Alexander C. Fife being recalled, examined the guard's ticket book, and swore that there was no entry of 2s in it of January 3rd, nor one of Is received on the Sth January from Kaiapoi to Ohoka. This was the case for the Crown. Mr Izard asked for the dismissal of the information on the ground that there was no evidence adduced to show that the prisoner had not, accounted to the station master at Kaiapoi for the moneys he had received. Mr Duncan said he could call the station master, who was in Court, but during the hearing of the case he was unaware of the tact. Mr Izard submitted that the case being close.i could not bo re-ope: ed. The Bench held that as the evidence stood, there was nothing to convict the accused on. The fact of not calling the station master at Kaiapoi to prove that the accused had not accounted to him for the monies he had received was a fatal objection. Ho was of opinion, however, that in a criminal ease like the one under investigation Mr Duncan had the power to reopen it for the product-ion of fresh evidence. Mr Izard s'tii he should still press his objection. His Worship had distinctly stated that the fact of the station master's evidence not having beon taken, that the accused had not accounted to him for the money he had received, was fatal to a conviction. There was

nothing to show that bis client bad been guilty of embezzlement, and the information must, therefore, be dismissed. His Worship eaid, on the whole he was of opinion that tho case bad better bo dismissed, and then Mr Duncan could lay a fresh information, submit the same evidence again, with tho additional testimony of the station master at Ivaiapoi. Mr Duncan having intimated that ho should take that course, Mr Izard applied under section 23 of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1860, for a certificate of dismissal as a bar to further proceedings being taken on the same charges. Mr Duncan objected, on the ground that all the evidence had not been heard. His Worship said the present case was not one in which the application for certificate of discharge could bo granted, as Mr Duncan intended to lay a I'reßh information at once. Ho would re-open the case the following morning under the new information, allowing Mr Izurd'3 objection to be determined first. Mr 1 zard said under the circumstances he would ask that db his client would be arrested as he left the Court, that the same bail should be allowed as before. The Bench agreed to allow this course to be adopted. LYTTELTON. Wednesday, Janttaby 29. [Before W. Donald, H. R. Webb and T. J. Potts, Esq.] DE9EBTEB3.—John Swift and W. J. Lee, belonging to the crew of the ship Waikato, were, on the testimony of Captain Worster and Constable McGlacken, sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment with hard labor. Tho prisoner Lee stated that he would have gone back to his ship but was ashamed, to which Sergeant Major O'Grady replied that the fact wai that both men had already shipped in tho barque Corinna, remarking that it was too much the practice of masters in port to take men aboard at night timo whom thoy must be well aware are deserting from other vessels. Insane. Frederick Going, arrested for lunacy, was remanded for eight days for medical treatment. Civil Cases.—Cathro v Wright, claim £1 IBs. Defendant to pay 10s per month. Same vCrotin, claim 19s. Judgment for plaintiff by default.