SUPREME COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 95, 21 April 1873, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

[Before His Honor Mr Justice'EiCHMOND] This Day. Tbe criminal sittings of the Supreme Court commenced this morning. The following gentlemen were called upon tbe Grand Jury :— D. Rough, T. R. Hodder, G-. Talbot, R. Corbett, H. Buckeridge, T. Mackay, W. S. Mortimer, W. Stavert, C. H. Brown, C. F. Watts, J. R. Mabio, H. Groulstone, C. Elliott, J. Watkins, R. Levien, A. J. Richmond, W. Wells, J. Symons, H. E. Curtis, and J. Sharp (foreman). His Honor, in charging the Grand Jury, said that on the present occasion, as for many years past, the calendar was very light. Qnly on one occasion since he was appointed to his present district in 1867 had it happened to him to be called upon to pass the last sentence of the law. Other grave crimes too had been far from frequent, and this was a state of things on which they might fairly congratulate themselves, and was, he thought, in a great measure to be attributed to tbe steady and settled character of tbe mining districts. The districts over which he presided, namely, Nelson and Westland, produced as large an amount of gold as any other part of the colony, and looking at the connection between gold and crime, thero was every reason to believe tbat there must be aB much of tbe latter here as anywhere. Throughout tbe whole colony it was observable tbat crime wbb on the decrease, and this was perhaps owing to the fact that gold was not to be obtained by mere scratching, but required ihe application of steady industry, and skill. The paucity of criminal cases occasionally provoked the observation that the judicial establishments of tbe colony were out of proportion to the work they had to do, but it was scarcely fair to apply this remark to the judicial establishment alone. It might ■with equal reason be made of every Government Department from the Executive down to Jhe lowest office. It was absurd to institute comparisons on this head between New Zealand and other British possessions, and the climax of absurdity was reacbed when jt was compared, as was sometimes the .ease, with Singapore, a small island thickly .iohjibitpd by Chines^ and Malays, and other lawless characters. This, on the other handj was a territory extending over twelve degrees of latitude and a similar number of longitude, and was equally habitable by the eame race in all its; parts. The inhabitants;

of the Bluff, for instance, considered that their climate was far superior to that of Mongonui in the extreme north, while those in the latter place wondered bowpeople could be found to live at the Bluff. 'l There was a remarkable climatic identity throughout the whole colony such as was scarcely known elsewhere. The climate of the north of Scotland was hyperborean compared with that of the neighborhood of LondoD, but no such . great distinction existed here, the whole colony being habitable by lhe same individuals throughout, and thia was the reason of the number of our establish-; menta. There was the Customs too;, with reference to which comparisons were occasionally drawn between the colonies of New Zealand and Victoria. This wns exceedingly foolish, as in Victoria there was one central port, while ours were numerous, extending over thousands of miles. It was not fair therefore to select the judicial establishment for such commentp, as the time of the judges was, owing to the extent of their distiicts, frequently taken up iD journey ings too and fro that occasionally were far from pleasant, especially to those w.ho were not fond of the sea. Similar remarks were sometimes made regarding the inferiorcourts, but these too were of necessity numerous, and it was impossible .to find - men of ability and understanding to per-. form the work without providing them with remunerative salaries. The cases on the calendar did not require much comment. Of that of cattle stealing he would say nothing*. Thenext : was for attempted suicide. Suicide was a crime which was entirely beyong the reach of the law, but it was often induced by a steady course of intoxication, and the punishment was frequently administered, not for the attempt of the prisoner to take his life, which in his (ihe judge's) opinion was an absurdity — but for tbe previous conduct that had led to that attempt. If the Grand Jury thought that at the time of lhe attempt the man was in such a state of mind as cot to know what he was about, they must ignore the Bill, but if they bad any doubt they must send the case to the petty jury. The other case was one. presenting some points of general interest. Mary Ann Woodman was charged with haviDg caused the death of another woman of loose life on tbe West Coast. Before the death of Macartby, the prisoner was tried and convicted at the District Court of an aggravated assault, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but on . death supervening -a coroner's jury returned a verdict of manslaughter. It was not, however, for the G-rand Jury to consider tbe fact of the prisoner having baen convicted for another offence. The Grand Jury then retired, and in a short time returned with True Bills in all the cases. MANSLAUGHTER. Mary Ann Woodman was indicted for the manslaughter of Catherine McCarthy, at Westport, on the 21st November, 1872. Mr. H. Adams prosecuted, and Mr Pell appeared for the prisoner, who pleaded autrefois convict. It appeared that prisoner had been convicted before the District Court at Westport of an aggravated assault upon M'Carthy, by striking her on the head with a frying-pan, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Shortly afterwards M'Carthy died, as it was alleged, of the same blow for which the prisoner Woodman bad been convicted, and the question was whether this previous conviction waa a bar to the present indictment. After considerable argument, his Honor said that his present opinion was against the validity of the plea, but as there was much conflict in the cases, and the question was one of importance, he should feel it his duty, if the plea was withdrawn, to state a case for the Court of Appeal.* The pie* was accordingly withdrawn and the case proceeded on the general issue. William Meredith, police constable, stated that | in consequence of information he had received he went on the 2 Lst Nov. last to the house occupied by prisoner and Catherine Macarthy. The latter was sitting on the bed bleeding profusely from a wound on the left temple. She said the woupd; was produced by a blow struck -with a frying- pan by the prisoner. She handed him the frjiog-pan wbich bad blood marks on it. The prisoner said, I "Yes, Mr Meredith, I admit I slid strike her with the frying-pan." Dr. Thi-rpe was sent for, and I witness arrested the prisoner, who was very violent. About an bour after the arrest prisoner 1 called bim to tbe cell and told bim that Macarthy had fallen on a stump outside and inflicted the wound. Prisoner and Macarthy "were both sober. Charles Kelly said that he was in the house oc- ! cupied by prisoner on the night in question, sleeping in the back room. On waking he saw blood j flowing in under the. partition. He went to the front room and saw Macarthy sitting there with her forehead resting on her hand, tshe was bleeding, and he, thinking it came from the nose, tried to stop it, but found it came from a wound in the forehead. Margaret Cox: Knew prisoner and Macarthy. Kelly came to fetch her the, morning of the 21st: November to see Macartby who had received f", wound. She went and found her sitting on a bejopji bleeding almost to death frpm a wound in * the foreiieaij. She tried to > stop the Weeding! Asked prisoner bPW she did it. She said she did not do it. Witness paj4 she had seen hear doit, when she admitted itj' and safd is was no one's -« business if she had. Macarthy said prisoner had struck her with a:; fry ingpan because she would

not go snd fetch her some beer. Attended her until her death, which took place on the morning of the 29th December.;, \. Dr : Thorpe said thSfc he was called on the 21st,. i Noverrfber, to see .Catherine Macarthy, whom He § found lying on al stretcher Blood was on tn£ \ upper part-of her dress, her head was bound* | round with blood-stained towels, and there was a large quantity of blood on the floor and wall. On examination he found a wound on the left, temple about 1-| inch long. It was a contused wound that extended to the bone and had severed a branch of the temporal artery. The' edge of tbe wound was blackened as if with soot oe. ashes. A weapon such as the frying-pan produced would have been very likely to csiuse such a wound. Attended her from that time to that of her death, which took place on?the29th December, was suffering ihe whole time, and occasionally lost a quautity of blood by vonii'irig Death was caused by hemoi;rh Hge-,' . produced by the wound on the temple." ..The"-: amount of blood lost from the wound rendered that which remained very watery, and it would consequently penetrale the tissues of the stomach, and make its appearance when? the patient vomited. The vomiting • might also have been traced in another way to the lesion on the bran which was discovered at the post mor- ••>' ; tern, examination There was also tubercular disease in the lungs. That sooner or later nMght h=tve caused death, but it was accelerated by the blow on the head The wound on the temple whii h had healed externally, reopened a few days; - before death, and there was an oozing of ( thin; blood from it. : „...' By the « ourt : I gave up attending McCarthy - ; for two days, because I discovered _ that "she had been taking stimulants which I had forbidden, fjjdetected this by the state of her pulse. I did not think she had taken enough to add to her danger. t>lie had diseases which . I think would have prevented her living for more than twelve months. I still attribute,her dea<h to the, wound she had received. The injury, which was greaty* :, than would have been caused by a similar wound on a healthy person, must have been caused by asevereblow. ■'.•■: <..-■.. '< The witness was then submitted by Mr Fell to a searching^ cross-exntnir. ation^ the drift of _ was to extract from him whether death . plight not have been attributable . . to some" other cause but the blow struck by the' prisoner.. The deposition of the deceased as made before the Resident'- Magistrate at Westport was then read as follows : — On Thursday, the 21st inst, prisoner was residing in the same- house with;. . me. She had. lived with roe .for some weeks? previously. .< >n Thursday, about, the middle of . the day, I was in the front room, and prisoner. ■, and a man named Kelly were in the back room.; •; ; In consequence of my, refusal to go for some -beer. ; for prisoner, she began to abuse ine. She, cajne- _ into the front room and .threw; -a gin bottle at 1 me : it struck me on the back and then broke on> thf floor. >After that, prisoner said she had doner eight months for Maggie Carr, and she would, db twelve month i for me. She then took the fryingpan out of the fin-placp and struck me twice with it over the temple, and over the'eyebrow. The blows caused a wound on the left side of my forehead. I was senseless from the blow until Dr. ' horpe came. ' I lost a great deal of blood from the wound. I had no tall that day or any injury except from the frying-pan. I : have been ill ever since frpm the blow. The prisoner and I were both quite sober iat the time of the occurrence. ' • • .'■'.'■'' < • i l "'- His Honor was summing up^whenwe went to press. "'' • F*,r remaindtr of news, see four th page,

■■-•ywVrr-.i- > ■■■rr"^lrVi't l s"^r-r-,T."-':,n iTaai-'.rr'T *,-'. ■gji.-^^^^^^.-.i-^ All the steam machinery and pumping gear employed by Mr Caßsius in his mines at Ross are offered for sale. The engines, five in number, vary from 12 to 60 horse power. Th£ Thames Advertiser says : — " As an instance of the .rapidity with which news travels, and the undue importance invariably attached to ru aioured goldfields, we may mention that an old Thames miner was induced to leave the comforts of a home in Nebraska country, United States (on reading a report of the opening of the Upper Thames), and made all haste for the long-talked of new El Dorado. We need scarcely add that his disappointment is great, and that he purposes returning instantly." The apportionment of the £100 reward, contingent on the capture of Chamberlain and Levy bas been a subject of serious debatement, and tbe County Chairman has bad some difficulty in making a satisfactory adjustment. Souter, the stockman, who guided the police to the hut where the runaways were caught, claimed £75 out of the £100, on the ground that Mr Commissioner James promised him that proportion in case of finding the looked-for game at the place. As it happened the police were, in advance, and their disposition was such as to effect the capture without assistance from Souter, otber than piloting them to the probable rendezvous. The police claimed three quarters ot the reward, £25 being considered very fair remuneration to Souter for services rendered. The County Chairmau has decided that Mr. Souter is to receive the sum of £50 for giving information to the police. We (Thames Advertiser) have much pleasure in publishing the following extract from a private letter sent to a friend here by one of the Otago representatives at the late prize firing at Nelson. It is couched in terms conveying a keen sense of the high esteem in which our men are held by their Southern rivals, an esteem unalloyed by bitterness or envy. An honorable emulation to excel has been engendered in the breasts of tbe men of the North and South, and we hope that the writer of the letter will have his ■wish — that the tuzzle for supremacy will often be renewed, and as often terminated -with nothing but good feeling on both sides. The extract we refer to says : — "Now that our competition is over, and the belt has been secured by your worthy representatives from the Thames, I must write a few lines of congratulation upon their success. There were Murray, Hoskin, Stone, Thompson, McLeod, McLean — all jolly good fellows and splendid shots, and the great stiafaction to us Southerners is that the belt has been well and fairly won by the best shots, except Walker, New Zealand can produce. Hoskin not only won our belt, but he succeeded in ■winning the esteem of all our team. I only trust I may be spared to have another tuzzle with him, if only for the sake of meeting with so many good shots and agreeable companions. I have to thank Messrs Hoskin and Murray for their kind invitation to visit the Thames, and but for the exigencies of business would certainly have accepted it." The Victorian Education Act is, it appears, producing some rather curious results, not the least of which is tbe change of opinion brought about in regard public schools, now that they are free. The other day we met with an instance of such a change worthy of being placed upon record. Some children who had always previously been sent to a private school, as the mother believed that public schools corrupted their morals, were seen by a neighbor entering a State Bchool. " How is this ? " said she. "I thought that your mother said public schools always corrupted young girls." So she did, replied the eldest child, "but she is now saving up our school money to buy a piano, and Tm so glad. " -** , While a party of Royal Engineers, under Quartermaster-Sergeant Gallagher, late of New Zealand, were engaged in throwing up a battery near Prince Edward's Bastion on the lower Lines at Chatham, one of the men, Sapper Goodall, turned up, about 3ft below the surface, a massive piece of gold. The gold is almost in the shape of the -** crook" of a cornet, the outside being fluted, one end being about half an inch and the other flveeights of an inch in diameter ; it weighs about two and a half pounds. The gold, on being' tested, was found to be of the purest quality, and it is thought to be worth about £130. The relic is iu the possession of the Commandant of the School of Military Engineering, and it •will be forwarded to the officers of the Crown as treasure trove. How it came to be buried where found is a matter of mere conjecture ; it is supposed that the gold formed part of a sceptre. [fc'-. We find the following strange story in the South Australian Register of the 24th January ir-More than/a: week ago a man knocked at the door-of the, Fowler's. Bay Police Station, : and upon the officer

in charge appearing, handed in a strychnine bottle, telling him that he had taken the contents, and would soon be dead. The statement was ere long verified by his being seized with convulsions and ultimately expiring. Ia the intervals of the fits the official gathered from the man that his name was Antonio Silvestro; that ten years ago at Castlemaine he committed a crime which placed his life in jeopardy, and since then he had wandered about the wildest parts of the bush, never venturing near a town or any place of habitation except occasionally an outlying shepherd's hut, fearing he might be detected. He lived on any wild auimals that he could catch, ond such roots and fruits as he could find in the desolate and hungry Australian busb, till at iast he resolved to ead a life of hopeless misery. There being no magistrate at Fowlers Bay at the time no inquest could be held, and all that the officer was able fo do was to bury the body of the unhappy suicide, and travel to Streaky Bay to report the case. The Anglo-Brazilian Times makes the following statement: — " A case of extreme old age is reported by oue of the census makers of Cape Frio, ia the Province of Rio Janerio. The name of the Cape Frio -Methusalah is Jose Martins Coutioho, born at Saqarema on the 20th of May, 1694, and therefore over 178 years old at this time. He is still iD possession of the mental faculties, and his only bodily ailment is the leg joints. In his youth Coutinho fought as a soldier in Pernambuco against the Dutch, and remembers the notable facts of tbe reigns of Don John V., Don Jose, and Donna Maria 1. The testimony to the extraordinary age of Coutinho is strengthened by the fact that he has bad 42 children by six wives, and that he can count 123 grandchildren, 86 great;, graud-children, 23 great-great-graod- s children, and 20.children of the last. " A Correspondent recently wrote to bis paper as follows: — "A railroad runs from Oswego to Syracuse. It is thirtysix miles long. I rode on it, and those cars moved so slow that if you want the draught in your face you have to ride backwards to get it. They never' have hot journals on that road ; the great danger is the stuffing and gravy around the axle will freeze. The screech of the locomotive is very faint, kind of like the warble of a four year-old boy blowing through a knot-hole in a board fence. It is capable of giving a grasshoper a thrill of alarm. The conductor, engineer, and fireman always walk ahead of the train to look for broken rails, and the cows always run ahead of them to keep out of the dust. I tried an experiment. Two trains were passing, and I struck a match out of the window and let the head of it rub against a* passenger car. It went so slow I couldn't strike a light. If you ever take a trip from Oswego to Syracuse over lhat road you want to take lots of clothes, a whole ham, and a barrel of corned beef aloDg with you." The Legacies op the Late Me White, or Peterboro'. — We have been furnished with the following list of legacies to public charities and institutions bequeathed by the late Thos. White, Esq., of Peterboro' : — Trinity Chapel, Priestgate, Peterboro', £500; London Missionary Society, Bloomsfieid-street,LondoD,£ 1000* London Missionary Society for Erection or Repairs of Chapels in Foreign Parts, £600; New College, St. John's Wood, £600; Springhill College, £200; Lancashire Io dependent College, £200; Hackney College, £200; British and Foreign Bible Society, £200; British Society for Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, £200; Eeligious Weekly Tract Society, £200 ; Peterboro' Dispensary, £200; General Institution for the Blind at Edgbaston, £200 ; Nottingham Institute for the Education of Young Men for the Ministry, £200 ; Rotherham College, £200; British School, Peterboro', £50; Colonial Missionary Society, £300; Baptist Chapel, Peterboro' (in Weßtgate), £100; Particular Baptist Chapel, Northstreet, Peterboro', £100 ; * Primitive Methodist Chapel, Peterboro', £100 ; United Free Methodist Chapel, Boroughbury, Peterboro', £100 j Wesleyan Chapel, Peterboro', £100; Peterboro' Branch Bible Society, £100; Protestant Alliance Society, £100; Society for Aged and Infirm Protestant Dissenting Ministers, £200; Deacons of the Independent Trinity Chapel, Peterboro', for distribution among poor persons attending that Chapel, £50; Home Missionary Society, £100; total, £6100. — Advertiser. The condition of armed preparation for war, which has pressed with so crushing a weight on the nations of Europe for many years, must be heavier now than afc any former period.. The help. which science has lately offorded to give perfection to military and naval armaments has all tended to add, to their cost. And the result is that the great powers . are, while; at peace, jail engaged in straining itheir resources in competitive preparations that are nearly as exhausting and burdensome

as actual war. The telegrams hOw inform us that the bill for the reconstruction of the French army fixes its standing number at a million of men, which shows a great increase on the tremendous arcqaments of the late military empire. Russia is engaged in reorganising.itsenormous army of 1,500,000 men, Germany is giving new weapons to its vast army, and all of the powers which attempt to maintain a naval force are vieing with • each, other in the construction of mighty ** ironclads, which cost from a third to balf-a-million each, undeterred hy the possibility that this class of ships may, in a few years, become antiquated and useless. Such a peace as this is an fopprerisiye and ruinous one. It is, moreover, a peace wbich is lull of apprehensions of war. We all kuow why these preparations . are made, They are made in the expectation of a general European war, for which the elements are by no means wanting. In addition to the long-standing questions and the ordinary jealousies, there is now the fact that the whole policy of France is based upon a vow of vengeance. The nation is humiliated at "Once by a sense of defeat and by the feeling of injury, aud the great burdens which are laid upon the taxpayers would never be quietly submitted to were it not recognised that lhey are imposed by the great patriotic object of one day buying back, with other fearful sacrifices, the lost military prestige, and tho conquered provinces of Alsace aod Lorraine. The prospects of the speedy approach of the reign of universal peace and the brotherhood of man are not cheering. — Australasian. A New - Mexican Love Chase. — In ! New Mexico, where young ladies are scarce, five men wooed the same damsel. The lovers, it seems, were all equally poor and — disreputable. The girl didn't love any of them, but she feared all of them. As the wooing waxed warm, the

. ... ii. i ... . ii. in ii i ..if.T.Hi... ■ [ t«if««teui'i»i»*»r««'Baß lovers began to indulge in threats 6f shooting -and throat-cutting, and one bf them more savage than tbe rest declared 7 that he would cut the throat of the girl himself ;Eoonei; than.; see her the wife of any of his rivals. This so frightened the girl that she resolved on flight. Making ample but secret preparations^ she fled one morio iug on horseback to the ranche of a friend, distant nearly one hundred miles from her home. The next day her flight was discovered, and the five lovers set out ;in pursuit, every one of them determined to catch her and marry her or die.' They rode in company' till the horse of one of them began to fall behind, when he insisted that the others should slacken their speed so as. to give him an equal chance. This they refused to do, whereupon he drew his revolver and began to ure at their horses. This so maddened the four other lovers tbat they opened fire on their assailant, and shot bim and his horse, but not till he had wounded and lamed two of their horses. The owners of the two wounded horses, seeing that they would be distanced in the race, demanded that their comrades should give them au equal, chance by aU going on foot. This proposition being declined, a second fight was immediately begun, which ended in the death of two of the combatants, and the! wounding of the otber two so seriously that, they could not proceed. After two days of suffering, the wounded men were found by a party of explorers, and sent to a cabin where they could have such help as the limited "resources of a frontier settler's family could, supply. There one of them soon died, and the other, after a long illness; convalesced sufficiently to ride away on horseback in search of some old companions. He did not propose. to go in pursuit of the girl again, as he had heard of her marriage to a cousin who was skilful with the bowie knife, and a dead shot.