RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT, GISBORNE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 112, 10 December 1873, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT, GISBORNE.

Thursday, December 4. [Before W. K. Nesbitt, Esq., R.M.] Solomon Black was fined 10s for being drunk. Erena Malre v. J. M‘Bride.— Mr. Cuff for complainant, Mr. Wilson for defendant. Assault. Defendant was find 40s and 27s 6d costs for striking complainant on the head with a stick. Hine te Ariki v. Gilmore.— Mr. Wilson for defence. Assault. The defendant in this case was also mulcted in a fine of £5 and costs for beating a native woman on the head with a stick. The above cases are totally devoid of any interest in detail, except to show that the vigilance of the police is necessary to put down a nuisance which is fast becoming one that the authorities must take notice of.

Saturday 6th December.

Assault. — John Montezino was charged by Captain Harris of the schooner Opotiki with having assaulted him on board that vessel. —From Captain Harris’s evidence it appeared that prisoner requested payment of his wages in full which was declined, whereupon an altercation took place, and Montezino savagely assaulted him (the complainant) biting his face, and ultimately drawing a knife with the intention of stabbing him. Captain Harris, after disengaging from the grasp of his assailant, defended himself with the nearest weapon at hand—a billet of wood —and struck the prisoner on the arm breaking the small bone of the wrist. Several witnesses were examined, and those in support of the prosecution seemed to be in great doubt which of the twain was the first to act on the offensive. The Bench, therefore, took a lenient view of the case, and, considering that prisoner had suffered sufficient punishment, even if in the wrong, by sustaining a fracture of the arm, dismissed the case.