RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5260, 1 February 1878, Page 4

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE’S COURT.

Thursday, January 31. THE CHARGE OF FRAUDULENT BANKRUPTCY. Francis Doneghue and James Robert Parr were further remanded till Monday on the above charge. NEGLECT OF WIFE AND FAMILY. Charles James was charged with not complying with an order of the Court directing him to pay £1 per week towards the support of his wife and family. The defendant excused himself on the ground that he had been out of employment. Inspector Atcheson said the defendant was continually making similar excuses, which were simply with the object of evading payment. Mr. Baker, the Clerk of the Court, stated that the defendant had paid no money since October last, and that even then he was a defaulter to a considerable extent. He would not press the charge if the defendant would pay £l3. The defendant said the utmost he could pay now would be about £6. The case was adjourned for a week, to see what efforts James would make in the meantime to discharge his obligations to his wife and family. STEALING. Walter Ockendon stood charged with having stolen from the premises of Mr. John Waterhouse, at Pakuratahi, a ease of gin and other articles. The accused emphatically denied the charge, and was remanded till Tuesday next. ARSON. John Pestridge was brought up on remand, charged with having set fire to the building known as the Railway Hotel. Mr. Izard appeared for the Crown, and Mr. Travers for the defendant. Michael Maher, goods’ clerk at the railway station, deposed to nearly two wagoufuls of goods belonging to the defendant being booked at the railway station and forwarded to Kaitoke. The Railway Hotel was a badly constructed building. It was very draughty, and the air had free play underneath the floor. Francis Campbell, a cab-driver, gave evidence as to the movements of the prisoner on the day of the fire. About three o’clock he left him at the railway station. James A. Boyd stated that ho was at the railway station on the day of the fire.' His: attention was attracted by the smell of v irnish and turps. He looked into the Railway Hotel, but saw nothing. On reaching his own residence his wife pointed out that smoke was issuing from the Baihvay Hotel. On arrival at the building ho found it ablaze. rßlack smoke was issuing:lron! the building. Witness had seen varnish burning. It gave out a nasty black smoke, such as that he saw com-'

ing from the hotel building. Witness believed Pestridge was a painter,by trade. In cross-examination, witness stated that turps or varnish would burn very. rapidly, and that there would be great difficulty'in extinguishing it. ■ W illiatn Stone, manager at the railway station, also deposed to the black color of the smoke issuing from the hotel when his attention was first drawn to the fire. The smoke was,coming from different parts of the .building. Daniel Egan deposed that he had originally agreed with a-Maori chief 1 for the lease of the land on which the hotel stood, but some hitch occurred, aud it was ultimately leased by Mr. Moeller in trust for witness's wife. The site for the hotel was afterwards sub-let to Messrs. Mace and Arkell at £4 per week. They advanced £SOO to build the hotel, which was to be repaid by £3 per week out of the rent. He believed Pestridge was put into the house by Messrs. Mace and Arkell.

By Mr. Travers ; Since the fire Mace and Arkell had offered him £250 to cancel the lease, on condition that they drew the insurance money. Witness refused. In May last Mr. Mace offered to take £3OO in satisfaction of the claim, and give up the building. The two cottages adjoining the hotel which were burnt down were not insured. Witness lost another uninsured building through the fire. It contained eight rooms, and was. in course of construction. The doors were to be put on that afternoon. The only furniture in the hotel at the time of the fire was a colonial couch and an lon bedstead. Witness for some time previously had been afrai l of the hotel catching fire. Detective Farrell said that Mr. and Mrs. Pestridge complained to him that £3 was too high a rent for the hotel, considering that it was not licensed, Richard Middleton Simpson, manager of the New Zealand Insurance Company, deposed to the Railway Hotel being insured in the,New Zealand office for £l5O, and in the National for £SOO. There was a further insurance on the furniture. The insurances had been effected in the name of Mace aud Arkell. The day after the fire witness saw the prisoner on the site of the hotel, and asked him some questions about the furniture. Pestridge repli d that a portion had been taken to Kaitoke, but that a considerable portion was left in the hotel. He said all the crockery had been left in the house. Witness replied that it was strange ther« were no signs of crockery amongst the debris after the fire. The prisoner seemed much annoyed at being questioned. James Cattell, a clerk in the New Zealand Insurance office, deposed that he took an inventory of the furniture at Kaitoke. Mrs. Pestridge gave him a list verbally of the things burnt in the hotel, and he wrote them down. Henry Mace, a partner in the firm of Mace and Arkell, said he held a lease ot the laud on which the Railway Hotel stood from Mr. Moeller. He sub-let the building to Pestridge at a rent of £2 a week till such time as he could get a license, when it would be £5. Pestridge owed him about £l7O at the time of the fire, aud he gave witness a bill of sale over the furniture. The building was insured in the names of Mr. Moeller and Messrs. Mace and Arkell for the sum of £SOO, aud for £l5O by wit;ie s’ firm. Tney laid out about £650 when the house was built. The prisoner obtained permission to remove the furniture to Kaitoke. This concluded the case for the prosecution, and Mr. Travers intimated that he did not purpose calling any witnesses for the defence at p esent, and would ask that the prisoner be admitted to bail in the same amounts as previously namely himself, in £SOO, aud two sureties of £250 each. The Crown offering no objection, this waa agreed to, and the prisoner was committed for trial at the next criminal sittings of the Supreme Com t. ASSAULT. A charge of assault preferred against three fishermen was adjourned till Monday.