RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1181, 29 January 1880, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

THIS DAY. (Before T. W. Parker, Esq., KM.) UP.EACH OF COKFOKATION BYE-LAWS. William O'Connor was charged with allowing one horse to wander at large, and was fined 4s. BOBBERY. • John Connor was charged with stealing two L-5-notcs from one Alexander Smith. Inspector Thompson prosecuted, and prisoner was undefended. Alex. Smith, a laborer, deposed that in company with a man named Elliott he arrived in Oamaru on Tuesday last, when he.had in his possession between L 26. and L 27, one L5-note, and the rest in single notes. They went to the Swan Hotel together, and there they had some dinner. When he was at the Swan Hotel he gave Elliott one LI note, and he returned him a L 5 note. There were two holes in the centre of the note. He identified the note produced as his property. He placed the two. Lo notes in his pocket-book, in which was also a'number of LI notes. He left the S'.van Hotel in company with Elliott at about one o'clock. They went to the Wh'itc Hart Hotel and had a drink, and Elliott left him about six o'clock. They visited a house of iil-fame. There was no person the house when they went in, but a girl named Paul came in shortly after. her some money, and she went out for some drink. Witness left that house and went "into an ajoining house of r a similar character kept by a, woman nahVed'S'ullivan,' in wliitthithere w'fere two woirfenafrd twci men, prisoner beihg one of them. Elliott then went home. ■ Witnessreiflaiupd here for sopie time, and became the worse for; drink. Daring the time that he : was in this brothel nothing occurred to render it necessary for-him to give or. pay away any of these notes. So far as his recollection served him prisoner was there the whole of the time. Elliott palled for witnpss, and on his way home he (witness) missed his money out of his pocket. He in- ; formed Detective Livingstone of his loss,: and they went back to the brothel, but as he wai3 the worse for liquor lie coulcl not remember whether he went inside. By prisoner ; I cannot swear that you took the' money. I do not know who took it. All I know is I lost the money in the house. I did not give Sullivan any money otherwise than for drink. John Elliott deposed that lie went to the house in company with a man named Beatey, and he, saw the prisoner there, and hp also aaw the prosecutor coming of a bedroom, They had soihe drink in the house, and prosecutor was going back to the bedroom, but prisoner refused to allow him, Priaoper then went into the

bedroom and locked the door ; but about five minutes afterwards he came out again. A row then started, and prisoner ordered him out, and they left. Witness went back with the detective, who arrested arid, searched the prisoner in his (witness')' presence. He showed him two L 5 notes,® and asked him if he could recognise them. He recognised one of them as the Lp note he had given Smith. Prisoner said that Smith had given the girl named " Polly " the two L 5 notes, and that as she was too drunk and sick, she had given them to him to mind. Richard Beattie deposed that prisoner gave him half-a-sovereign to take the prosecutor away from the house. Benjamin Perry, landlord of the Swan Hotel, deposed ..that on Tuesday last he cashed a cheque for Elliott, giving him in change two L5-notes, one Ll-note, and some silver. Witness knew one of the notes by its having two figures on the back of it. He recognised the note produced as tho one he had given Elliott. Detective Livingstone deposed to arresting the prisoner at a brothel in Trentstreet. Before arresting him he searched him and found two L 5 notes in his lefthand vest pocket. He asked prisoner how he became possessed of them, and he replied it was money that prosecutor had given Polly Sullivan. This was the evidence for the prosecution.

Prisoner was then committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court, Dunedin.