RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

Kumara Times, Issue 1032, 22 January 1880, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

Tuesday, January 20. [Before J. Mackay, Esq., KM., and R. J. Seddon, Esq., J.P.] OUSCENE LANGUAGE. Annie Wells was charged with using obscene language within the hearing of a constable in Main street, on the 13th inst. The language, which was of the most disgusting nature, having been proved by Constable Nash to have been made use of by the defendant, and also repeated complaints having been made against her by persons living in the neighbourhood to the police, the Bench inflicted the full penalty of .£lO, or, in default, three months’ hard labor. ASSAULT. William Ward was charged, on information, with beating one Rebecca VVhite, by striking her on the face with his hand. The father of the defendant, Mr Ward, was allowed by the Bench to defend the case on behalf of his son. Ellen White, being sworn, deposed : I am the wife of Jeremiah White, of Dunedin Flat* Kumara. On Saturday, the 11th iftSb'l about four o’clock in the afternoon, I heard a .noise outside my house, and I saw Mr and Mrs Ward and their family going away towards Dillman’s Town, and at the same time I saw my daughter Ellen returning from Sunday School. When they met one another, I saw the defendant raise his hand and strike my daughter twice in the face. I tapped at my window, to show them that.l saw what was going on. •' ‘ To Mr Ward: I saw your son strike her with his clenched fist j it was about 200 yards from my place where this happened, as near as I can judge. To the Bench : I have not been .on bad terms with Mr Ward and his family until within two months ago. Ellen Rebecca, White, being sworn, deposed : I am the daughter of the last witness. On the Sunday before last, I was returning from the Sunday School at Dillman’s Town when I met the defendant with his father and mother, near Dunedin Elat. Mrs Ward and her daughter Lucy placed themselves in front of me on the road, and the defendant came up and struck me iirst on the right side of the face, with his hand, and then on the other side with his fist. To the Bench : I did not speak to anyone of them. I did not hear them say anything to me before I received the blows I had no quarrel with any of Mr Wards family that day, as I had not seen any of them previously. I could see our bouse from the place where I was struck. To Mr Ward : Your son struck me with his clenched fist. He did not say he would thrash me for striking bis oruther. I think my mother could see me being struck from our house, and I said so after I received the blows.

Henry John Williams, a miner, on being sworn, deposed : On Sunday afternoon, the 11th inst., t sa\V Mr Ward and his fatnily on the Tramway, when Ellen White came npj and as soon as she did so, the defendant struck her twice in the face. lie attempted to strike her the third time, hat I do not think the blow touched her. I heard no words spoken, it was about fifty yards from Mr White’s house where the occurrence took place. To Mr Ward: I believe it to be about fifty yards. The defendant struck her the second blow with hi* clenched fist. Mr Ward said he greatly regretted that the case had ever come before the Court, and, smarting under an old provocation, his son, who was very quicktempered, had acted on the impulse of the moment when he met the complainant. He called Mr J. Davidson, who, on being sworn, deposed that the defendant had been in the employment of their firth for eighteen months, daring which time he had always found him a good, quiet) well-behaved boy. The Bench said that in this case the parents were more to blame than the defendant, and considered that no steps had been taken by them to prevent the occurrence; at the same time it was a cowardly-action on the part of the defendant to strike a girl; and the Bench would mark their sense of it by lining him £1 and costs of Court, or, in de* fault, fourteen days hard labor. The fine was immediately paid by Mr Ward. CIVIL CASES. Simmons v. Piezzi,—Mr Button appeared for the defendant. This was a claim of 355, for professional services rendered as a musician in playing at a ball at the defendant’s house in the Waimea on Boxing night. The evidence, however, proved that the plaintiff did not attend, nor forward a piano to tho Waimea, as agreed to with the defendant; and judgment was given against the plaintiff, with costs of Court and witness’s costs. Mr Seddon here left the Bench. The Mayor and Borough Council of Kumara v. Hunn.—ln this case a judgment summons had been taken out against the defendant, to show cause why he had not paid the amount of a judgment obtained by the municipal authorities against him. The defendant pleaded that he was without means, and that in eighteen months he had. only done thirteen weeks work. Ho admitted, however, having offered, one of the witnesses on a previous Court day a cheque for 10s, on the ground that he knew it was no good and would not be cashed, When questioned as to a gold chain and watch he was Wearing on that occasion, he said it was only a “ dummy,” and in supprt of his statement produced a gilt chain ahd a watch case to the Court, A witness proved that the defendant had £6 in his possession after the Borough had obtained judgment against him.—The Magistrate made an order that the amount should be paid in one month, or the defendant receive 14 days’ imprisonment.