RESIDENT MAGISTRATES COURT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 860, 17 January 1879, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATES COURT.

THIS DAY. {Before T. W. Parker, Esq., K.SI.) Joseph Williams v. John Moore—This was a case of cattle trespass, with damages, set at LlO. Mr. Newton for the plaintiff, Mr. O'Meagher for the defendant. Mr. Newton submitted that the trespass was clearly proved, and that the plaintiff was accordingly entitled to damages to the full amount claimed. Mr. O'Meagher, in the defence, argued that there was nothing to show that the plaintiff was in possession at the time of the alleged trespass ; that "Williams had fields of wheat, plantations, gardens, &c., but unfenced. He would submit that the trespass had not been proved, as there was no evidence of any tree or shrub, or even a twig, being broken, besides which the fences were in such a state as to preclude any claim of LlO damages. His Worship ruled that the plaintiff was in i>ossession, that there could have been little or no damage done to the grass paddocks, as grass fields were very bare this year. Nothing was said of the destruction done to the hay and straw stacks, to the plantations, or to the fences. The whole of the substantial damage he could arrive at was the breaking of a few wires in the fences. He would set it down at L 3, and costs L 4 6s.