RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT January 13.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 358, 14 January 1876, Page 3

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT January 13.

(Before H. W. Robinson, Esq. R.M., and L. W. Busch, J.P.)

Police V; Thomas Pyle.—The information in this case was that defendant, on the evening of the 4th day of January, did, without a licehse, sell one glass of brandy and two glasses of beer to Patrick Nolan, police constable. Mr. Bailey appeared for defendant, and pleaded not guilty ; Pyle being merely in charge as Millar's servant, who had obtained a transfer of license from -Reidpath. Sub-Inspector M'Cluskey, who appeared to conduct the case, submitted that if any transfer of license from Beidpath to Millar had been made it was informal, and that therefore Millar had no right to put in anyone as agent or servant. He would give evidence himself. Being t worn, he said : At the December Licensing Court a license for the Old Victorian Hotel was transferred from W. J. Millar to Reidpath. He remained licensee up to the 22nd December. About that day a transfer was made to Millar again. On the 23rd Beidpath, who had been in the lock-up the day before, left the district, and Mrs. Millar took charge,or remained in the premises until the 30th or 31st. On the following Monday, January. 3rd, went into the hotel with Constable Murdoch. A servant girl was there and Mrs. Beidpath was in the bar. I asked her who was in charge? Mr. Bailey here interrupted, as almost incessantly during the hearing of the case, until the Magistrate had to caution him that he would settle the case by ordering him out of Court. In this instance he wanted to know who„Mrs. Reidpath was ? The Sub-Inspector knfew quite well she was Mrs. Pyle, the wife of a respectable man in this town.

Witness: I think she is Mrs. Tieidpath. I will cull her, if Mr. Bailey likes, Mrs. Keidpath alias Pyle. Slie told' Die Mr. Millar was carrying on the business. I asked lor Mr. Millar; she said she supposed he was at the farm. She was in charge as Mr. Millar's servant. Mr. Bailey had got the transfer arranged by telegram from the Chairman, and that the transfer was in Coui't. She asked me if Mr. Field had not shown it to me. I told her I was not aware of any such step being taken. The next day I asked Mr. Field if Reidpalh's license had been transferred and entered on the Court books ? He said No, but that Mr. Bailey had shown liim a telegram in reference to it. The witness was cross-examined by Mr. Bailey, but nothing material, • ven to the very immaterial statement, was arrived at. Constable Murdoch, being called and sworn, generally corroborated the last witness'evidence. In cross examination he stated that. Mrs. Pyle told the Sub-Inspeetor that Millar was the licensee of the bouse to the best of her knowledge. Constable Nolan, being swrrn, said : He was on duty on the night of the 4th. He went into the Old Victorian Hotel about 10 o'clock, accompanied by Constable Murdoch and another. He called for brandy, and asked Murdoch wliat he would have. He called for beer. There was another drink and another beer. We were supplied by a servant called Harriet. Mr. Pyle served Constable Murdocn. Witness paid Pyle 2s. Mr. Bailey : Now tell me were you requested to visit the house that night with the object of laying this information. Witness : I always act under my Head. Mr. Bailey: No that'won't do; were you told to go or not by the Sub-Inspec-tor P

Witness : I went under his instructions for the purpose. Mr. Bailey addressed the Bench, stating the defence to be that an application for a temporary transfer was already before the Court. He had telegraphed to the appointed Chairman of the Licensing Bench, and he had replied that, under the circumstances, the transfer would be sanctioned. £lf there were any laelip. in the notice filed the Court would allow it to be rectified. There was great difficulty in getting the license transfer-

red from a disreputable inan. to Millar, who was'the freeholder. Mr. Pyle, who had married at.the time was r quested to take charge of the house. The application for transfer from Reidpath to Pyle is produced for the next quarterly meeting. Millar had not left his house for more than fourteen days, Mr. Thomas Pyle, being sworn, gave evidence that he was serving with his wife for Millar, who had been in the house less than a week ago. Cross-examined : Millar placed me in charge about the 27th. I will swear he has made no arrangement to rent the house to me. I am reaping no benefit from the house. My wife and self look after the house. I allow my missus to keep the house in the day, and I sleep there at night. There is another servant named Harriet assisting my wife. "We are all servants.

Mrs. Alice Pyle, being sworn, said: .Was in Millar's employ. A servant assists me in the hou'se. Sometimes she is in the bar. Millar pays me. She remembered the Sub-Inspector coming to the house to ask who had charge. He said he did not see that either he or I had any right in the house, and that the Chairman had no right to grant the license without consulting him. Witness advised him to speak with her employer, and did not order him out of the house. The Sub-Inspector here drew the .at: tention.of the Court to Mr. Field's conduct in advising Mr. Bailey. Mr. Field said he was a witness in the case and was interested. The Court: If Mr, Field is speaking to Mr, Bailey it is in very bad taste. I shall not interrupt them if they chose to speak in an undertone, but 1 will say if any officer of this Court is rendering assistance to either side it is what no gentleman ought to do. Witness (cross-examined by the SubInspector) : I swear you told me the words I have stated. Sub-Inspector : If Constable J/urdoch and I swear different? Witness : Perhaps you will. have that sin on your own head, and many others. .Mr. Field, being sworn, said : He was Clerk to the Licensing Bench. An application dated 22nd December, signed by John Reidpath, for the temporary transfer to W. J. .Millar, was lodged on the 23rd December. The telegram produced is from the Chairman—"Transfer approved. Shew this to Mr. Field." On Tuesday, the 4t.li of January, about noon, the Sub-Inspector stopped at the door of the Court House when I was engaged entering up my. book. He asked me whether there were transfers for the Pass Hotel to David Messent and also to.Pyle for the Old Victorian Hotel. I told him, as trustee in the estate of .Mrs. George, I had applied for a transfer to J/essent. He said ' The Court:. You, as an officer of the Court, know perfectly well what is evidence. If you persist in going into what is irrelevant I shall have to consider you are in contempt.

Witness: The two eases are mixed; up In both these cases the Sub-Inspector replied the transfers should not have been granted without he being consulted. At this stage th.ere was an altercation between the witness and his cross examiner, neither edifying nor becoming. At last witness said :' The Sub-Tnspector gives what I say a flat denial. He should institute an action against me for perjurv. The Court: You know perfectly well it is not perjury. A man may staud.up and swear what he likes in such a case as this. The Sub-Tnspector said he was too wellknown in the district to be injured by the witnesses' statements. il/is. M\\\&r gave evidence corroborative of the defence set up. Constable Nolan, being recalled, proved ho. had ascertained on the morning of the 4th that no transfer fee had been paid to the Town Clerk. Mr. produced the Clerk's receipt of same date. The Sub-Inspector said if Mr. .Millar had kept the house in his own h nds the case would not have been brought. He did not consider Mrs. Beidpath a proper person to be entrusted with the house. He submitted no proper transfer had been made. Mr. Bailey, whose voice for two hours was never silent, was here brought up by the Court in a way even he would not disregard. The .Magistrate then said that the C rt urt thought that justice had been met by the investigation. The netjlecf. appears to have arisen from a case on behalf of Mr. J/ll'ar's agent. Some of this difficulty would not have arisen but for my casual absence. I thought I was safe in supposing the two gentlemen I had to deal with by telegram would kuow their work one being an officer of the Court, and the other an authorised agent. I will know better another time. It would be a hardship to punish Pyle. The case should have been rather against :M"illar. Sub-Inspector: The police have not seen .Millar selling at all. The Bench : Yes, I know that ; perhaps .Miliar and Pyle should have been implicated. The case will be dismissed.

Police v. Stuart.—This was a case similar in particulars to the last, occurring at the Pass Hotel. The case was not pressed. The matter of ss. costs was guaranteed by the Bench. Brookes v. James Cavanagli. Claim, £l2 18s. 4d. No appearance of dpf'enrlant. Judgment for amount claimed, with costs £1 19s. Brookes v. James Cavanagh (for Cavanagh and party). Claim, £6 ss. Judgment for amount claimed, and costs, £1 13s.