MAGISTRATES' COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 265, 8 November 1877, Page 2

MAGISTRATES' COURT.

[Before H. E. Curtis and A. R. Oliver Fsqs., J.J.P.J ' George Green, of Wakapuaka, and John Tutty, of Nelson, publican, were charged under the lith section of the Larceny Act that they did wilfully and feloniously kill two lambs the property of John Oldham, of Wakapuaka, with intent to steal and carry them away. Mr Acton Adams appeared for the prosecution, and Mr Pitt for the defendant Tutty. Mr Adams briefly stated the facts of the case, aud said it was a very serious one, aud he was very sorry to have to make such a charge against a man in Tutty's position, bufc the case appeared perfectly clear against both of the accused. John Oldham : I reside at Werneth, Wakapuaka. Defeudant Green is in my employ. Yesterday morning early I gave him leave to go to town where he said he had very particular business. My property consists of about 1200 acres mo3tly fern hills. On the town side a road leads to the back of it which is out of view from the house. In the afternoon I went out with my two sons behind the hill which intervenes between the back of the property and the house. My sheep run there, of which Green, who had been in my employ seven or eight months, was aware. My boys called my attention to a dead lamb lying iv the fern. It was quite warm and just dead, and had evidently been shot. I then heard voices and a dog barkinsr, and going in their direction, I saw Green crawl from one patch of fern to another. I beckoned to the boys to come on, and then followed him up. When I was half way up the saddle I said " It is no use for you to hide, I know you are there." I then found him coiled up in the fern, and he stood up, and I accused him of sheep stealing. He said " No, not that, lam after quail." Then Tutty got up about five or sir yards away. He addressed me as Mr Dodson, and said " I will tell you all about it." Green said, "It's not Mr Dodson, it's Mr Oldham." Tutty then said, " I came up quail shooting, and this is the gun that did it." The gnn was in two pieces, the stock and barrel being wrapped up together. I replied "It doesn't matter who did it, it's heen done between you." Tutty said "I had nothing whatever to do with it, I gave the gun to Green." I then noticed that Green's hands and trousers were covered with blood. I said " That's not quail's blood on Green." I then thought there must be another sheep killed as the blood could not have come from the one I had seen. I sent the boys for the dogs. Tutty said he would go to town with me if I liked. I said I did not want him to just then, and they then went away. Before the boy returned with the dogs I found the paunch of a sheep, and on their arriving on the opposite side of the fence the dog found some blood. In a bush close by I found the skin and head produced, bearing my registered earmark. This was about 150 yards from where I found the defendants. J searched further and found the carcase of a lamb about three yards from where the defendants had been lying down. The hind legs were on the skin and the fore ones on the carcase. Green lives in a cottage on the run and keeps himself. Green having declined to ask any questions the witness was theu cross-examined by Mr Pitt:— I shonld not have given Green a holiday to go shooting. I did not ace Tntty until he was in the act of rising. I did not notice that he had a game bag. When I accused Green of sheep stealing, I think Tutty said, ' I think you have known me long enough, Mr Dodson, to know I wouldn't do a thing of that kind." I asked him if Green had shot the lamb and he said he wouldn't say, as he had been out of sight. Green did not say he had not intended to shoot the lamb, but that it was an accident. Before leaving the box Mr Oldham said that he wished to state that Green had always been a steady, sober, hard-working man, and he was very grieved aud surprised to find {.hat he had beeu guilty of such an act. John Gilbert Oldham gave evidence corroborative of his father's. Peter Levy said that he went to Green's house and found both prisoners there. Tutty gave me the gun and said it was that which had shot the sheep, but that he did not do it. Green said "I shot the sheep, he did not." Tutty talked a good deal and said that for all New Zealand he would not have had such a thing happen. I met Tutty driving out to Wakapuaka on the previous evening. Cross-examined: Tutty, when I arrested him, called my attention to a game bag he had on him and the ammunition it contained, preen said several times : " It's all right, 1 shot the sheep. Tntty had nothing to do with it." I have known Tutty for thirty years. He bas always borne a good character for honesty. I have never known anything against him. At this stage of the proceedings Mr Pitt, with the permission of the prosecuting counsel, asked that the prisoners might be tried separately. To this the Bench objected, the case having gone so far. John Oldham, recalled: I omitted to mention that when Tutty was denying having fired the gun, Green said "Not that ahot." Tutty made no answer. After Green was arrested I noticed that he had changed his trowsers. He had evidently been having something to drink in the meantime. This closed the case for the prosecution. Mr Pitt said that no doubt his client, Tutty, had got mixed up in an awkward business, which required some explanation, but that which he had to offer would, he was sure, be regarded as quite consistent with the evidence. Green became acquainted with Tutty by staying at his house when he first arrived here as an immigrant. They had arranged to have a day's shooting, and Graen got a holiday for that purpose on the excuse tbat he wanted to come into town. Tutty weut out to his houae on the previous eveniug, and they started together in the morning. The country was rouglj, and Tutty being au elderly, and not an active, man, got tired and Green relieved him of the gun. liy aud bye Tutty sat down to reat and did not move again until Mr Oldham came up. Green iv the meantime had goue away and shot a sheep accidentally, and on returning and | telling Tutty was upbraided by him for his , folly. They were talking of this when Mr Oldham came upon them. Of the skinned sheep Tutty knew nothing, and there was : nothing to show how it was killed. Prisoners, having been duly warned, made the following statements: — George Green: I fired the shot, but accidentally, not wilfully. I was not aware that more than one sheep was killed. I don't understand a gun, never having fired one since I was a boy. Tutty did not know that I had done it until I went and told him. I told him I was sorry it had happened, and that it was quite an accident. I had been driuking brandy with him iv the morning and was under the influence of it. John Tutty: When the gun was fired I heard the report of it. I could see uo smoke, and from the report thought it was a long way off. When Green camo up to mo aud told me what he had done, I told him he had done very wrong. He said it was quite au accident, and from what I know of him I have every reason to believe that what he said was true. When he gave mc the gun I tried the barrels and found one of them loaded. I then took the barrels out of the stock and tied them together ready for starting home. It was the*) Mr Oldham came up. Green told his wife in my presence that it was entirely his own fault, and that I had

nothing Whatever to do with it. Green had no means of charging the gnn while he was away as I had the ammunition with me. Mr Pitt then called Messrs. J. R. Dodson W. Stallard, and F. Trask of speak to Mr Tutty's character. The Bench, after consulting for a few minutes committed both the prisoners for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court. Application for bail was made on behalf of Tutty and allowed, himself in £200 and two sureties in £100 each. No application was made for Green.