RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4274, 1 December 1874, Page 3

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

Monday, November 30. (Before J. C. Crawford, Esq., R.M.) LARCENY. Henry Davis pleaded not guilty to stealing a pocket-book containing £1 17s. 6d., a gold chain, and a key, the property of David Jones. The prosecutor stated that on Friday last he and the prisoner left their lodgings in the morning, and went for a stroll to the Thorndon end of the town. Coming back again they called in at a couple of hotels, where they had drinks. They ultimately reached Miller's, where prisoner asked him to “ shout,” which he did. He took his pocketbook out of his pocket to pay for two glasses of ale, and was under the impression he had put it hack again, but on arriving at his lodgings he missed it. He told prisoner of the loss, who said that prosecutor had probably left it at the hotel. Went to the hotel in company with the prisoner, hut did not find the purse. Witness had lent him a shilling in the morning, hut was surprised when he saw him come home in the evening very drunk. Gave information to the police. Solomon Collins, a pedestrian, deposed that prisoner was offering a gold chain for sale at Mclntosh’s hotel on Saturday evening last. He at first asked 255. for it, hut eventually sold it to witness for £l. Prisoner stated, in answer to witness’s inquiries at the time, that hq had bought the chain in England for £2 10s. Prisoner gave a receipt to Collins, signing it “Henry Smith.” In answer to the magistrate, Davis admitted the theft, pleading inability to obtain employment and being without means. He had arrived in the colony by the Duke of Edinburgh. His Worship remarked upon the prevalence of petty larcenies, and sentenced the prisoner to six mouths’ imprisonment with hard labor. BREACH OP THE IMMIGRATION AND PUBLIC WORKS ACT, 1870. George Fitzmaurice and Hugh Apliu were charged with a breach of the above Act by refusing to deliver their tickets to the authorised persons when travelling on the Wellington to Hutt railway. Mr. Izard appeared for the railway authorities, and Mr. Ollivior defended the prisoners. Mr. Izard, who did not wish to press for a heavy penalty, stated that the defendants were return passengers from Wellington to the Hutt on Sunday, 22nd ultimo. They had been requested to deliver their tickets both at Kaiwarra and at Pipitea stations, but refused. He pointed out that the bye-laws of the railways specified a penalty not exceeding £5 for the offence. Mr. Aplin (one of the defendants) stated that on the day named he was one of a pai-ty of two ladies and three gentlemen, all of whom had first-class return tickets from Wellington to the Hutt by the railway. The party occupied a first-class carriage to the Hutt, hut although at the station ten minutes before the train started on its return to Wellington, they were told there was insufficient room for them in the first-class carriages. He thought they might have found room if they had been allowed to try. The gentlemen were accommodated in a luggage van, and the ladies were placed in a second-class carriage, where there was a drunken man, who during the journey became sick, spoiling a silk dress worn by one of the ladies. On arrival at the station, with a view to initiate proceedings against the railway authorities, he asked for a voucher acknowledging them as passengers, which the authorities would not give. They decided to keep the tickets as receipts for their payments as first-class passengers. The authorities offered to split the difference between a luggage van fare and a first-class fare by returning them 6d. each, which they refused. His Worship pointed out that although they had undoubtedly been subjected to great annoyance, they nevertheless had no right to detain their tickets. The regulations provided that in the event of insufficient i-oom in any particular class of carriage passengers were to accept whatever was available, or remain behind. The tickets had been retained simply as receipts, and he thought a dismissal would meet the case.