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NZ Truth, Issue 75, 24 November 1906, Page 5

a brandy bottle, she (Mrs Russell) had come into the- room laden with billets of firewood,, and, being shickered. had turned turtle, with the result that she came down on a bit of wood or something hard and had thus met with an injury, the seriousness of which was not doubted. The two women had apparently Consumed a considerable quantity of liquor between them, and Maria stated, though the other denied it, that on. the previous night she was so drunk that she could not stand and had fallen over while carrying some eggs. Beer and brandy seemed to be the favorite tipples and there is not any doubt that thinss were very merry.

Maria had a very lengthy record, made up principally of drunkenness and vagrancy, and when Crown Prosecutor Myers started m to itemise cine met him with the. protest that it was not at all necessary to go into details, as the same had not been done with Ellen. Anyhow, the protest had its effect. The Crown Prosecutor subsided, and, judging by the formidable list from which he. read, it was just as well he did subside, as he might never have finished.; ,

The Chief Justice summed up very strongly against Maria, but the jury, after a few hours' retirement, were unable to agree.