MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1548, 4 February 1879, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURTS.

CHRISTCHUBCH. TUESDAY, FbBBUABY 4. [Before Gh L. Mellish, Esq., EM.] Deitnk and DisOßdebly.—A first offender was fined ss. Luna cy.—James Simpson, charged with lunacy through the effect of drink, was remanded to Lyttelton until the 12th instant, for medical treatment. Larceny.—Rasmus Jorgenson was charged with stealing a saddle and bridle, value £f?» the property of Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson, being sworn, said that he wae> manager of the Bottle Lake Farm for Mr B. Recce. The prisoner had been in his employ for about fourteen days as a ploughman. He> ran away between the 25th and 26th January. He was there on the evening of the 25tb, but was missing at half-past 5 the next morning. Missed a saddle and bridle and a turcingle at half-past 5 o'clock on Sunday morning, the 2Gth. The articles wore the property of Mr Reece, ironmonger, and were in his (witness) charge. Their value was from £5 to £G. The saddle, bridle, and surcingle outside the Court are those stolen. Never authorised the prisoner to take them. The Tuesday morning after the things were missed witness reported their loss to the police. Constable W. Wilson Smart, stationed at the Little River, deposed that he arrested the prisoner on the 27th January at the Somerset Hotel, at the head of the Bay, at 10 o'clock at night, on another charge. Took the prisoner to Mr Lee's stables, about 200 yards from the hotel, and found the saddle and bridle and surcingle hanging up. Took it down and the prisoner claimed it as his property. Witness took charge of the ti ings,and they are no w outside the Court. They were afterwards claimed by Mr Johnson. The prisoner said he had bought the saddle, bridle, and a horse for £B. This was all the evidence the police were prepared to bring forward at present, and Mr Inspector Hickson asked that the prisoner might be remanded. Tbera was another case against him. Hoesb Stealing.—Rasmus Jorgenson, the prisoner in the previous case, was charged with horse stealing. Matthew Shimaneki, a farmer residing at Rhodes' swamp, deposed that the horee outside the court was his property. He last saw it in a paddock on the section £ where he lived last Sunday week between six and seven o'clock, and missed it the following Tuesday afternoon. The witness had sold the horse to Mr Rogan about the middle of January for £8 17s 6d. He had not paid for it. He brought the horse back last Thursday week, and he was in the paddock a very short time before he missed him, a couple or three days. The horse was brought; by the police last Sunday- When the horse was returned by Rogan he cried off the bargain. No one else had any authority to take the horse away. Charles Rogan, a farmer residing at Rhode's swamp, being sworn, stated that he recognised the horse as one which he had purchased from the last witness, and subsequently returned to him breaking the bargain. Never sold the horse to anyone else, or authorised anyone to take him. Constable Smart repeated his evidence as to the arrest of the prisoner at the Somerset Hotel. He saw the horse now outside the Court, which the prisoner claimed as his. About an hour afterwards he said he had bought the horse of Mr Shimanski. An application for a remand was also made in this case by the Inspector of Police for the production of a witness to whom he had offered to sell the horse. The Bench held that the evidence of this witness was not material, as there was suflicient to warrant his committal on both charges. After the evidence had been read over, the prisoner was committed for trial at the next sessions of the Supreme Court. GrBO'SS Pabbntal Neglect. Julia McG-rath, a girl about 14 years of age, was brought up cuarged with being a neglected child. James McG-rath, the father of the child, said he was a laborer living over the Stanmore Bridge. He leased about twenty acres of land and owned some cattle, which his daughter tt nded. She slept in a tent, on the native reserve at the mouth of the Heathcote estuary, and he daily took her her meals. Some days ago the tent was blown down, but ho was not aware that the child slept under a flax bush. She had a blanket to cover her, and her mother sent her a change of clothes. He had to work for his family, and it was necessary to leave her to see the beasts were not lost. A son of his was recently convioted, but it was not from his ill-treatment. If the case was overlooked the girl " would never do it again," that is to say, he would take care she was not sent back. He was a laboring man and had to do the bfpt. he could for his family. Mr Inspt ctor Hickson put a number of questions to the witness, for the purpose of showing that the child had been the victim of ero*s cruelty and neglect but the father made a long rambbling statement of his ciicumstances that failed to show he had in any way properly looked after the girl. Sergeant Hughes 6aid at eight o'clock the previous evening he found the girl sleeping under a flax bush, near the Native Reserve at the mouth of the estuary, merely covered with an old grey blanket," and the shreds of the tent in which she had previously slept, and which was blown down last Thursday. Since then she had been sleeping where he had found her. She had been living in this manner for the last two months. Her food was irregularly brought to her by her father, but the child told him sho had been frequently unvisiled and left for days together without food. When he (the witness) called at the father's house at 11 o'clock on the night he took the girl to the police depot, he found him in bed, and on being told the condition his daughter was in, said he was about to visit the " dear sweet child." The sergeant said betook the child away from her miserable shelter and removed her to the depot from whence, alter having had a good meal she was taken to the Armagh street barracks. A witness named Appleby, living near where the girl had been sleeping, said that to his knowledgo she had been there since last Anniversary Day. Last Saturday she came to his place for shelter and food, and again on the following day. She appeared to be greatly in need of both. She said her avocation was to watch hor father's cattle night

and day to prevent them being impounded. The shameful treatment of the child was a matter of notoriety to all the residents about, and it was timo that some steps should be taken to ameliorate the child's condition. His Worship said he was quite of the witness's opinion. Tn answer to a question from the Bench, the girl's father said his daughter was a Roman Catholic. His Worship ordered the child to be sent to the Industrial School for two years, to be brought up in the Roman Catholic religion. His Worship, before allowing the father to leave the Court, lectured him severely for his inhumanity. He was bringing up his child like a wild beast, and would be answerable for her ruin. His son had been ruined by hia gross neglect, and his whole conduct with regard to his family was disgraceful in the extreme. It was all nonsense saying he worked, and did the best for his family, in the face of his treatment of his child, but for the» future, insteid of making a profit out of her, he would hare to contribute to her support at the Industrial School. LYTTELTON. Tuesday, February 4. A STOWAWAY. —Alexander Mitchell was brought into Court, from the brig Argos, charged with having stowed himself on board that vessel on her departure from Sydney for Lyttelton. The officers of the Court went in quest of the requisite number of Justices, but, none appearing, prisoner was remanded.