SUPREME COURT SITTINGS, HOKITIKA. CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.

Kumara Times, Issue 2062, 9 April 1883, Page 2

SUPREME COURT SITTINGS, HOKITIKA. CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.

(Before his Honor Chief Justice Prendergast.) Saturday, April 7. His Honor took his seat on the Bench punctually at ten o'clock. James Wylde, who was convicted of larceny on Wednesday last, was brought up for sentence.

In answer to the usual questions, the prisoner said he was 60 years old. He also, in a faltering voice, said : "I wish to say a few words, your Honor. I believe that the jury, in bringing in a verdict of guilty, acted conscientiously, according to their interpretation of the evidence laid before them; but lam nevertheless perfectly innocent of the crime for which I have been tried, and am the victim of party spirit carried to an extreme and wicked excess. It would be useless for me to enlarge upon the artifices which have been resorted to to get rid of me and to replace a tool of some of the Borough Councillors in my place. The abtraction of some papers -whilst I was in office, and since then the pretended loss of others which were necessary to establish my innocence are only sorae of the means which have been employed to ruin me. I cannot expect this statement to have any weight upon your Honor, but it is a satisfaction to me to make it, and I thank your Honor for allowing me to do so. When first appointed as Town Clerk of the Borough of Kumara, 1 was appointed more from the fact of being a skilled engineer than from any skill as a practical accountant and bookkeeper. They considered it more important to have a skilled engineer in a newly-formed borough. I have no more to say except that I regret the position in which I am placed, and I shall be grateful for any leniency." Mr Guinness called the following evidence as to his character.

Wra. Barnett, sworn said; I am Mayor of Kumara ; I have known prisoner five years; he was Town Clerk. I have been a member of the Council two years last September. I always found him courteous, attentive, and zealous in the performance of his duties. I never heard anything against his character until the present occasion. Richard John Seddon, sworn, said : I am a member of the Kumara Borough Council. I was Mayor during the first two years of its existence. When prisoner was-first appointed Town Clerk he appeared wholly ignorant of the mode of keeping the books of a public body, and I assisted him. On one occasion he sent iu a balance-sheet, in which he had placed the debtor and creditor items on the wrong sides. It was more on account of his skill as an engineer than for his book-keeping that he was engaged as Town Clerk. I never heard anything whatever against his character until the present occasion. I have known him for sixteen years, and he always bore the best of characters.

John O'Hagan, late Mayor of Kumara, said he had known the prisoner five or six years. Outside of the present charges, the prisoner was a man for whom he had every reason to entertain the highest respect.

Mr Guinness asked if the Crown pressed for a heavy sentence.

The Crown Prosecutor stated that the Mayor and Council of Kumara, the persons chiefly interested, did not wish to press for a heavy sentence. His Honor said that the first impression made upon him by the evidence was such that he would have felt it his duty to pass a very heavy sentence. When the defalcations spread over a course of years, and were accompanied by falsification of books and destruction of vouchers the case was serious. But he felt bound to treat this charge by itself. He would not take into account the reports of auditors or other matters. If the Crown was advised that the sentence he was about to paas was not adequate, it would be competent to proceed with other indictments. He must take into account the jury's recommendation to mercy, as well as the fact that the Kumara Borough Council joined in that recommendatiou. It also appeared that the prisoner really was not a competent book-keeper. The Court would also take into consideration the fact that the Borough Council had instructed the prisoner to retain the deposits in his custody, and possibly so assisted to lead the prisoner into his present position. In that Court long terms of imprisonment had been given for misappropriation of moneys. But there was a distinction between these and the present case. He felt bound to treat the case separately. If he thought the prisoner had been accumulating money by these defalcations, he

would pass a very heavy sentence. Taking all the circumstances into consideration, the prisoner would be sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labor. This terminated the criminal calendar, and the jury were accordingly discharged. .