MAGISTRATES' COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 184, 26 July 1876, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURT.

[Bsforo J. Shephard, and R. Pollock, EsOS., J.J.P.] John Cooper, a lad aged nine years, was charged with using obscene language iv a public street. Mr Pitt appeared for the complainant, and Mr Fell ibr the defendant. Mr Pitt, in opening tbe case, said that on Sunday afternoon Dr Bakewell's son, aged 11, and hia sister, aged 13, were returning from catechism at the Catholic School when the defendant used the most disgusting language to the boy regarding his sister. The two children went to their parents crying bitterly, and complained, but without stating the words used. Dr |Bakewell then went to defendant's father, and asked him to cane his which he refused to do, but said he would correct him. On his return home Dr Bakewell extracted from his son what had been said, and determined to take the case into Court. Conduct of the kind complained ot was, he had reason to believe, only too prevalent in Nelson, and required to be checked. Mr Fell said if Dr Bakewell's only object was to have the boy punished, that had already been done by his schoolmaster, and he had also been beaten by his mother. Thomas Bakewell: I am eleven years of age. I saw defendant at catechism at the Catholic School last Sunday. My sister, wbo is thirteen, was with me when we left to go to our home in Waimea-street. The defendant and another boy followed us, and called us names. He commenced to chaff me, and said he was ill and wanted me to give him some medicine. He made some filthy allusions to ray sister. After we got home we came out again, aud defeudant again followed us to the Port road making the same remark about my sister. (The language was such as cannot appear in print.) I boxed his ears. I afterwards went with my father to Cooper's. Oross-examiued : He used the same words all the time. I hit him, and told him not to say it again. Dr Bakewell : On Sunday last my boy ran up to me on the Port road and told me the defendant, who was then on tho 'Bus, had been using bad Janguagd to himself and his sister. Both wero crying bitterly, and it was only alter I had got home that I could get him to tell me what expressions had really been used. I went to Cooper and complained to him, and said I hoped he would cane the boy. He said he would not but he would correct mm, I said I should if I caught him.

This closed the case for the complainant. Mr Fell said he should be the last to defend such conduct as that complained of, but he; believed that some mistake existed, and that more had been made of it than was necessary. He then called Hugh Corrigan: I was at school with Johnuy Cooper and young Bakewell. "We walked together down Hardy-street and then on the Port road. Johnny chaffed him and said— " Doctor, give us a glass of medicine ; the baby's loat his appetite." I did not hear him use any dirty words. I saw Bakewell box his ears. Cross-examined : I did not hear Johnny Cooper say anything about Bakewell's sister. I was with him all the time. James Hart : I was with Bakewell and Cooper all the time. "We were all teasing Bakewell Cooper did not say anything about Bakewell's sister, but he called him a devil. John Cooper : I was walking home from catechism with Bakev/ell and his v sister and the other boys. I was chaffing him, but I did not say any dirty words. Father Garin has beaten me for this, for. calling names, and I have been kept in at school for it, and mother has beaten me too, and I have a cut on the leg where Bakewell threw a stone at me. I never said a word to Bakewell about his sister. Mr Fell submitted that the case had not been proved. He had the weight of evidence oh his side, and, although it might seem hard to say so, he thought that Dr Bakewell, having once determined to take the case into court, should have been prepared to go through with it by placing the girl to whom the language had been used in the box. Mr Pitt thought the corroborative evidence given by Dr Bakewell of his children going tp him at the time in such a state of agitation and complaining of the language used was sufficient proof that it had been used. It was not likely that young Bakewell would on the spur of the moment concoct such a beastly lie, and afterwards get into the box and swear to it. He hoped that the Bench would show the lads of the town that they were not to be allowed to use disgustiug language to females with impunity. The Bench considered that the case had been proved, and thought that such thing? should be put down with a strong hand. Parents would have to learn that they must check their children in using language which made the streets unfit for any decent female to walk through them. Considering the tetider age of the defendant, and the fact that lie had already received some punishment, they would deal moderately with the present case and inflict a fine of half-a-crown and costs.