RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 13 December 1880, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

* THIS DAY. (Before T. W. Parker, Esq., R.M.) DRUNKENNESS. Three first offenders were fined 5s each for having been drunk and disorderly, and Henry Plummer, an old offender, was fined 10s for a breach of the law. STRAY HORSE. Robert Harley, for permitting a horse to wander at large, was fined 3s. PASSING COUNTEBFEir OQIN. George Grleegan was oharged, on remand, with having on the oth instant, at the raceoourse, littered a counterfeit sovereign with intent to defraud James Reid. Sergeant-Major Thompson prosecuted, and Mr. Johnston appeared for the prisoner. James Reid, town crier, gave evidence that he purchased the right of charging admission to the racecourse. At about a quarter past ten o'clock on Thursday last, the prisoner with five othei's drove up to the course in an express. Prisoner gave him either a, Llrnote or a sovereign, and witness gave him the ohange. He could not swear which it was—a note or a sovereign—but to the best of his belief it was a sovereign. About a quarter of an hour afterwards witness took the sovereign out of his bag to put it into his pocket, and then discovered that it was a baa one. He had received nothing but silver before the prisoner's arrival, nor afterwards until after he discovered that the coin was a bad one.

In cross-examination by Mr. Johnston, witness said he did not take any particular notice of the person who gave him the sovereign, but afterwards, when prisoner was asked for payment, he said he had already paid, and showed witness the change he had received. William Reid, a son of the last witness, gave evidence to halving seen the accused give his father something a sovereign. He saw his father give prisoner JSs in change. The witness was cross-examined at considerable length by Mr, Johnston, but he strongly adhered to his statement that he knew the man who had given the sovereign to his father, and that he had afterwards told his father that he could point the man out if he saw him. When his father told him that he had a suspicion that he had reoeived the bad sovereign from the man with whom he had afterwards had a dispute about payment, he told hia father that he had seen him' give something like a sovereign, and that he could point him out. Walter Ullmer stated that he saw a'c> cused pay for two at the gate of the racecourse on the 9th instant, but did not see [what change he received. He afterwards heard the prisoner, in a dispute with prosecutor, say he had already paid, and saw him produce 18s, which he asserted, he had received in change. Allan M'Corkindale, watchmaker and jeweller, deposed that;. tl\e coin procluQed was brass alloyed with oopper, and that its value.would heabout 3d,

Constable'Livingstone'stated that he arrested the accused on the racecourse at about three o'clock on the 9th instant. He told prisoner that he arrested him o$

j a charge of passing a bad sovereign, and I prisoner Said, " Oh, if its a sovereign, I'll easily get out of that." j This closed the case for the prosecution. Mr. Johnston urged that his Worship had no alternative but to dismiss the charge. The evidence of identification of the person who had passed the counterfeit coin was utterly weak, and there was no evidence whatever in proof of a guilty knowledge on the part of the prisoner. Even if it had been clearly proved that the prisoner was the person who uttered the base coin, it was necessary to show that he did so with a guilty knowledge. There were only two points necessary to prove in a case of the kind, and neither of them had been supported by evidence. His Worship remarked that he did not think any good could be obtained by sending the case to a higher Court. The police could not obtain evidence of guilty knowledge on the part of the prisoner, and the evidence of identity was weak. He could not, therefore, do otherwise than dismiss the charge.