MAGISTERIAL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2604, 11 August 1882, Page 3

MAGISTERIAL.

OHBIBTOHUBOH, Friday, August It,

[Before O. Whitefoord, E<q, 8.M., and F. Guinness and B. Westenra, J.P.’s.J Drunkenness.—For a first offence, a man was fined ss, or in default twenty-four hou's* imprisonment with hard labor. Shoplifting. —Annie Barry, aged thirteen years, Emma Bsrry, aged fourteen, Sarah Borland, aged fourteen, and Mary Gilbert, aged fifteen, were charged with, and pleaded guilty to, a series of petty larcenies from the shops of Messrs May, Eadoliffe and Joughiu, Beath, Cooke and Crocker, Keid, Mies Duncan, Messers Walsh and O’Oonnel, and others. The articles stolen were ribbons, laces, handkerchiefs, boots, perfumery, hats, velvet, alpaca, baskets, kits, tcilet sets, feathers, Berlin wool, and a variety of other goods of the same kinds, all in small parcels. There were fifteen charges in all. The robberies extended over a period of nearly six months. They were discovered, or the offenders traced, in consequence of Annie Berry and Mary Gilbert having been taken in the aot of stealing a pair of boots from the shop of Joseph Atkinson, in Colombo street. The girls made certain statements, which lei to the arrest of the others and the rearoh of the Berry’s house, where a large number of stolen articles were foutid. The father of Borland and the mother of Gilbert, who were iu Court, stated that they bad no inspicion of the course their children were pursuing. They blamed the Berry family for. having led them away. After consultation the Bench dealt with the oases as follows :—Mary Gilbert to be handed over to Mr Maddison, the master of Burnham School, ho to act for her in loco parentis. The others were committed to the same institution until they arrived at the age of fifteen years, after wiiioh the master to take up the same relation to them as he now holds to Gilbert. The father of Borland was ordered to pay 2s 6d per week towards the maintenance of his daughter. Receiving Stolen Goods. —Mary Berry, mother two of the girls convicted as reported above for shoplifting, was committed for trial on six charges of receiving goods, being the greater part of those stolen by the girls, Assault. —Peter Jack, for assaulting his wife Jane, was ordered to be bound over, in his own recognisances in £25, to keep the peace for six months. Breaches of thb Licensing Act,— Patrick Gillon, licensee of the Garrick Hotel, Christchurch, was ohargsd with having on Sunday, August 6-h, kept open his house for the sale of liquor, and on a second charge with having on the same date permitted drunkenness os> the said promises, Mr Thomas appeared for defendant. Sergeants Mason, Pratt and Wilson were sworn. Their collective evidence was to the effect that on the date named, at a little before 10 p.m,, they visited the Garrick. Approaching by the back door they found several men who had apparently been turned away from the entrance by a man named Lewie, who seemed to be acting as scout. The officers knocked at the door, and after some little delay wero admitted, but they found the bouse in total darkness. At their request the gas, which had been suddenly extinguished, was lighted, and on search they found in a room about elevea feet square in size on the right of the passage sixteen men, all more or less under the influence of liquor. Twelve of them were known to be residents of the town. There were two men “speechless”drunk, 000 man asleep on a sofa, and another concealed under the table. The air in the room was thick with tobacco smoke and alcoholic steam, while the floor was slippery with what the witnesses thought was liquor, There were several black eyes anrong the men, and one of them had bad outs on his face. The police called four of the men whom they had found in the hotel, none of them admitting having had anything to drink there. One said he was a lodger, another that he went there to see a lodger, a third, followed the last named without any special object in view, but said he had been “ shoved ” into the little room ho didn’t know why, &0,, &c. A bottle of beer was found nnoponed in a corner of the room, but it was claimed by one of the “lodgers.” There were no glasses about. Mr Thomas addressed the Bench at some length. He explained the turning off of the gas. It was done by the mother-in-law Of the defendant, who was foolishly alaimad when the cry of “police” was raised. Ho

urged that, there, bad not been any evidence bf the commission of the offences witn .which the defendant waa charged. Defendant had no donbt very foolishly allowed a number of men to congregate in his home, and the circumstances probably seemed very suspicious to the police, who of course drew the .worst inferences from them 5 but whatever they might think, there wap not the least evidence of the technical violation of the Act, and he confidently submitted that the oases must be dismissed. His Worship said: the evidence showed that a most disgraceful state of affairs existed at that hotel. The details given by the police spoke for themselves, and he had no difficulty in convicting. Defendant would be fined £5 on both charges, the charge of permitting drunkenness on his premises to bo endorsed on his licence;