SUPREME COURT. Criminal Sittings. Before Mr. Justice Chapman. Wednesday, June 5, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 507, 12 June 1850, Page 2

SUPREME COURT. Criminal Sittings. Before Mr. Justice Chapman. Wednesday, June 5, 1850.

John Quagley, steward on board the Perseverance, was indicted for assaulting James Emanuel, cook of the same vessel.

James Emanuel deposed, that on the 31st May the prisoner, without any previous provocation on his part, after calling him a " nigger" and using other abusive epithets, struck him a violent blow over the eye with an iron bolt which caused him to drop on the deck the moment he received it. Henry Meech, boatbuilder, deposed he was on board the Perseverance on Eriday morning, the 31st ult. ; the prisoner, who had an iron bolt in his hand, continued to irritate the black man, the mate trying to prevent him ; the irritation continue d, and the prisoner struck Emanuel, who fell, and at first witness thought the man was dead, and the mate said to the prisoner "you have killed the man "; witness saw no provocation offered by the coloured man. Charles Stutfield corroborated the testi. mony of the last witness as to the unprovoked nature of the assault, which was con_ firmed by that of James Welch, the mate, James Jenkins, seaman, and Stephen Neat . John Dorset, surgeon, described the severe nature of the injur) received, by the prosecutor, and said that an inch further the blow would have proved fatal. The prisoner was found guilty, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. James Jenkins, convicted of the robbery of Mr. Andersons store, was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment with hard labour. William Thompson, convicted of assaulting and robbing Charles Peck, was sentenced to seven years transportation. The Grand Jury made a presentment on the state of the gaol, which they stated was in the same condition as when a previous presentment was made eighteen months ago ; they stated that two prisoners convicted and sentenced to transportation at the last sittings of the Court still remain in prison although an opportunity for their removal to Van Diemen's Land has occurred in the interval, and they complained of the I inconvenience of "being compelled to at- | tend the Court for so many days, awaiting the possibility of the Attorney General preferring another indictment in case of two prisoners being acquitted on a capital charge" conceiving that the Bill might have been preferred contemporaneously with the others. The Grand Jury bore testimony to the zeal and efficiency of Mr. Barry, the Governor of the gaol, and in conclusion expressed their sense "of the zeal and energy displayed by Mr. M'Donogh, the Sub-In-spector of Police, in getting up the case against Good and others," and of the exertions made by police constable Oxenham in pursuing and capturing the prisoners.