SUPREME COURT, WANGANUI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 69, 29 April 1881, Page 2

SUPREME COURT, WANGANUI.

(Bifore his Honor the Chief Justice.) Compiled from Wangauui papers. . , larceny. F. Christie was charged with stealing on the 20th January 10 1 in coin and one bottle of H •Hand's gin, the property of one William Gre«uou£h, publican, at Otaki. Prisoner pie ided uoFguilty. Wm. Greenough, hotelkeep'.T at Otaki, deposed that in January ; last prisoner boarded at his house. On the lfoh of that montlrwitness ■ lost one of the keys of his bar. There were ! f lurtnen in* thr-wenr- when toe key -wm— • lift m the door last, the. prisoner was one of the four. H* said Vr them that -tone of them must have the key, and that they had better give it up. They each denied any knowledge of the key. On the 20th of January he marked two half-crown*, two two-shilling pieces, and one shilling, and put them in the tilL Be then locked the bar and went to bed. Next morning witness found the bar locked and the till empty. He also found a bottle of gin missing. The barman gave him a •billing which bore the same marks as the ones witness had put in the till. Some time afterwards witness came into the sitting* room where prisoner was, and said, "I'm pretty dry, are you going to shout?"' Prisoner replied, "All right, Harry, booze up." Witness had a drink and said topri* toner, "Hoinui,"aud he gave him one of the two-sliilliug pieces which had been marked.— By prisoner— He opened the bar himself on the morning he missed the money, and left the bar unattended for sometime. No one could have gone into - - r.he bar without witness hearing them. Twelve mouths previous to this he bad left prisoner in charge of the bar, but had not done so recently. P isoner bad been drink* ing rather heavily for some time before this affair occurred, and on one occasion witness had taken some money out of his pocket, and had returned it to him in the morning. — At this stage prisoner stated that he admitted that he took the money, but as he was a lodger in the place he could not be guilty of breaking and entering. — Wm. Robb, late barman for prosecutor, gave similar evidence, and stated in cross-ex-amination that he had seen prisoner serving . behind the bar. When he was fastening - up the bar for the night he siw prisoner - standing out in the road. He could not have got in through the doors that night, hut witness could not swear that he did not sleep in the houie that nieht.— Laura Brown, housemaid of the hotel, remembered prisoner staying at the hotel. He stopped in bedroom No. 6, and on the morn* ing of the 21st of January she went round the rooms. Prisoner's bed gave no evidence of having been slept in, —John Gillet, livery stable-keeper, stated that he had aD appointment to meet ft Mr MoKenzie at the hotel at 4 o'clock on the morning of the 21st. The window was to be left open for him, but when he went there he found the door was open, and so went round to the door. — By prisoner— *He had seen prisoner behind the bar, and he had access to the till, end used to give change, &c— James Clowser stated that prisoner had come to his whare on the morning of 21st Jan. and said he had been seeing some Maoris off to Foxton. • Prisoner had a bottle of square gin with him. ( —A. J. Mitchell, constable at Otaki, deposed to arresting prisoner on a charge of burglary. Prisoner when arrested had two marked half-crowns, and a two-shilling piece, also a key (produced). Prisoner said that, if Mr Greenough thought he (prisoner) was in his house from the hour 10 p. m. till the hour of his arrest, he was mistaken, and that Mr Greenong'i was to blame for putting so much temptation in his way.— This was the case for the Crown. — Prisoner made a statement, in -which he admitted going to the bar and taking the money, but contended that he had not broken into the house. — The jary retired for a few minutes, and returned with a verdict of guilty of petty larceny, and made a recommendation to the Court on account of the many temptations the prisoner had been subjected to. — The Crown Prosecutor said that three previous convictions had been recorded against priwranr in Dunedin. — His Honor said he could not see that any temptation had been given prisoner, though no doubt he had been drinking. He was therefore bound to sentence him to the full term of 12 months' imprison* meat, with hard labour. FORGEBY. Geo. Wright, an old man, was indicted for forging and uttering a cheque for £25 upon the Bankfiof N.S.XV., Wellington, in the name of It. Dawkins. The prisoner pleaded hot guilty.and was undefended. James M Credie, cook at Mountain's Hotel, Wellington, deposed that in December last prisoner was at the hotel, and took a blank cheque on the Bank of N.S.W., Wellington, from his pocket, and asked witness to fill it up for £25 payable to "Geo. Wright." Witness did so. (Cheque prodnced and identified. ) Prisoner then asked him to " put any name he liked to it," hut witness declined, as he did not wish to get iuto trouble. William Greenous;h, landlord of the Telegraph Hotel, Otaki, stated that the prisoner had incurred a debt of 455, and «n January 11th last tendered the cheque in payment. Witness sent the cheque on to the Bank, and in reply received a telegram Btating that there was "no account." Witness knew no one of the name of R. Dawkins. By the prisoner— There was a letter with the cheque when it was presented, which witness presumed he had thrown into the waste paper basket. The letter was in the handwriting of a man named Gillet, who was with the prisoner when the cheque was given to witness. William Robb, the prosecutor's barman, gave evidence in confirmation of last witness. ■ Constable Mitchell stated that he arreßted the prisoner in the stable loft of the Telegraph Hotel. Ho informed witness that he • and another man had been working a still . at Paikakariki. With regard to the cheque, prisoner said that he had sold a quantity of whisky to a man named R. Dawkins at "the Waterloo Hotel, Kaiwarra, and had received the cheque in payment. By the prisoner — Witness asked prisoner to point out the still, but he suggested being allowed to go two days ahead to find it. — (Laughter) — terms which witness would not accept. W.-.J. N. Campbell, teller in the Bank of N.S.W., proved that the cheque was x - dishorored, and that no person named 8., Dawkins had ever had an account at the . Bank. , This closed the case for the prosecution. ... In bio defence the prisoner called the man Gillet, who stated that at prisoner's request he wrote a letter addressed to Bi Dawkins, to be left at the Waterloo Hotel, Kaiwarra, asking Dawkins to cash the cheque and send the money to Otaki by the coach. The letter was with the cheque . when the letter was handed to Mr Gre^n* ough. . . ; . . His Honor briefly summed up, and the jury, after twenty minutes deliberation, found the prisoner guilty of "uttering" only. There are three previous convictions against him and he was sentenced to 18 months' hard labor.