MAGISTRATES' COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 64, 15 March 1877, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURT.

[Before W. W. Squires and R. Pollock. Esqs,J.J.P.] : ' • LARCENY. ; William Lindsay was charged with stealing a watch and chain, the property of 'Joseph Thorne, master of the cutter Planet: The Bench having decided to deal with the case summarily, the prisoner, acting under the advice of his solicitor, Mr Bunny, pleaded guilty. ;- " ■ . Mr Bunny said he should like to address a few. words to the ßench before they passed sentence. The prisoner, a young man, 14 years of age, had been working for Mr Garrard on the wharf for 10s a day, but had recently shipped on board the Mary Wadley for Napier. On Saturday njght he, Thorne, Westrupp, and a sailor from the Melrbse met at M-Kenzie's Hotel, where they had a merrymaking. They were all the worse for liquor, but' the prisoner got very drunk, and without knowing what he was doing went, as it appeared, on board the Planet, and committed the crime with which he was charged. On coming to his senses his regret was very great on finding what he had done, so much so that it drove him to drink again, and at the close of the second debauch he sold the watch to young Tatton. He had never before been guilty of such a crime, and no one regretted more deeply than he did what he had dove. i The Bench took an exceedingly lenient | view of the case, and sentenced the prisoner to four months' imprisonment -with hard labor, m — !" ' i ii — _u-a>