RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 198, 28 October 1864, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

WEDNESDAY, Ocxobee 26,1861. CBefore J. Curling Esq., It.M.) FORGERY. Thomas Edmund King, was again brought up charged with feloniously forging a certain cheque on the Union Rank of Australia purporting to be the draft of one Henry Hartshorn. James Butcher Brathwaite being sworn, stated : —I am manager of the Union Bank of Australia, Napier. Prisoner was the acouutant. He had been in the bank some years, and was accountant for the last eighteen months. I had reason to suspect him of dishonest actions in the bank, and suspended him from his duties, until I could hear from the inspector in reference thereto. On sending for him, to go more fully into the matter, he confessed to having committed a forgery on the 6th September, 1864. I asked whose cheque he had forged, and on whose account, and lie told me Henry Hartshorn, on the 6th of September, for £l5O. I turned up the vouchers of the 6th of September, and and found the cheque, which lie declared was not Hartshorn’s writing but his own. (Cheque produced and marked A.) The body of the cheque is in the prisoner's usual handwriting. The signature to it resembles the signature of Henry Hartshorn. I know Hartshorn’s handwriting. Henry Hartshorn on oath said :—I am a carrier on the Te Aute road. I had an account with the Union Bank of Australia. Seeing my name in the paper as the person whose cheque had been forged, I came down and saw Mr. Brathwaite. The cheque produced is not in my handwriting. The signature to it is not in my handwriting, but a good imitation, I know also that I never gave a cheque for that amount. Ihe prisoner having been cautioned in the usual form, declined saying anything, and was committed for trial at the next criminal sittings of the Supreme Court, to be held in February next, at Napier. The witness J. B. Brathwaite was bound over to appear and prosecute in the sum of £SOO, and the witness H. Hartshorn to appear and give evidence in the sum of £SO.