RESIDENT MAGISTRATES COURT, FOXTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 48, 15 February 1881, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATES COURT, FOXTON.

----------|---------- YESTERDAY (Before Messrs Thynne and Stewart, J.P.'s) LARCENY. Mary Buckendahl was charged with having, on February 5, stolen 1 pound of candles, about 6 pounds of sugar, about 1 pound of apples, 2 bottles of vinegar, and 1 tin of marmalade, of the value of 9s, the property of J. Herbert Hankins. Mr Hankins opened the case against prisoner by saying that for some time past a systematic course of plunder had been going on at his house, by which large quantities of articles of domestic use had been lost. A girl named Carey was employed as nurse, and though she had acknowledged to having given the woman Buckendahl, who was employed to wash for the family, things on previous occasions, she did not do so on the particular one referred to in the charge, as prisoner then took them herself. The motive held out to the girl appeared to have been that if she would deliver the things up, prisoner would wash her clothes. Owing to her tender age, he had not prosecuted the girl. Bridget Carey, nursegirl, deposed — I am 16 years of age ; on Saturday, February 5, I was at Mr Hankins' house ; everybody was out but me and the children ; prisoner came to the house ; she said something to me about another place ; she had a kit in her hand ; I went to Mrs Hill's and left her ; I was away a quarter of an hour ; after I returned, we were sitting outside talking ; she went into the cottage behind the house, and took some apples, a pound of candles, a tin of marmalade, and some sugar out of the gunny and put it into a blue bag, also she took two bottles of vinegar ; I think that is all ; she said " Look, I am taking these ;" she then went to the train, and after that returned to wash the dishes ; the things were all in the kit when she returned. By the Court— l said nothing to prisoner when she took the things : she had no occasion to be at the House that day. Examination continued — Prisoner has often taken things from the house before. By prisoner — I did not meet you that day in the Main street; you came to the back door, and asked for the key of the office ; you advised me to go to Mrs Hill's to secure a place there. J. H. Hankins deposed — I have been in the habit of missing a quantity of things from my house ; early in the week before last I counted the jam and marmalade, and on the Saturday found one tin was missing ; I charged the girl with the theft, and she then told us about prisoner having taken the things ; I value the stolen articles at 9s ; upon telling prisoner I intended to prosecute her she begged me not to do so. Prisoner said on the day in question she went to Mr Hankins' house for the key to clean the office, but found no one there ; she went on to Main street, and there saw the girl Carey near Lovejoy's ahop ; both were standing on the path for half-an-hour. She then entered upon a very long rigmarole as to the events of the afternoon, in the course of which she studiously avoided mentioning the articles she was charged with having stolen. She also said her husband could prove that she had never taken things home. The Bench said that prisoner could easily have produced evidence to prove that the girl Carey was in the street when she alleged she was at Mr Hankins' house; If that evidence had been brought forward, their faith in the girl's statement would have been materially shaken. On the one hand was the statement of Mr Hankins that a tin of marmalade was missed, coupled with the assertion on oath of the girl Carey that prisoner stole it, and on the other was a statement by prisoner which amounted to nothing, as she neither denied the charge nor brought evidence to prove the untruthfulness of the witness Carey. She would be sentenced to one month's imprisonment in Wanganui Gaol, with hard labor.