MAGISTERIAL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2819, 6 April 1882, Page 2

MAGISTERIAL.

TIMAEU—THIS DAY. (Before B. Woollcombe, and E. Wakefield. Esqrs.) INCENDIARISM AND LUNACY. William Sanford was charged .with incendiarism, but a further charge of lunacy being preferred Against him ho was remanded tor seven days to enable him to bo medically examined. LARCENY. Peter and; John McCaskill v,>ore charged on remand with the larceny of 19 bales wool, the property of the Union Insurance Company. Mr. White appeared to prosecute and Mr Hainersley for the defence.’ Peter Golden corroborated, the evidence of the witness, Basely, as to the arrival of the Cashmere wool and the quantity of other wool in hand at. the time, and as, to the sending out. of certain wool from the shed. He had a conversation with Dectives • Kirby. Marshall and McCaskill were on the premises. He had not seen Marshall leave, but he had seen McCaskill leave. To Mr Hamersley—Basely was oh the premises, but I do not • know where about exactly., I saw you on the ground yesterday. I ’ cannot swear Whether Basely was within ' heating, I wish to correct ‘my previous statement that I said Ypu haye, sent some more wool away." ~ What I said was, “ What, are you sending away some more wool, John?” I did not ask, where it was being sent.. I did not know syhose wool it was; I remember that When this wool was sent away, there was wool'left in the shed ;I do not know how much. I do not know why Basely left MeCaskill. ' '■ /■' .rj ff Examination continued Witness never conversed with Basely on the subject of the wool, hpr had ho eVer conversed .with, anybody; except . the detectivei :He had,, how,eye, toldjthe men that he had been subpoenod for, the prosecution. .. ■ Alfred Edeler said : he 1 went into the employ of accused in December last. He remembered the wool from' the ship ; knew it was ships wool because,’.the men said so. He did not know the quantity of wool bn the premises; saW fire-wool lying on the grass on Dec 28. He could not swear to the quantity .; he saw ho other wool on the premises. 11 To the. Bench—My work was woolwashing, ' ; ' ’’ ; 7 ‘ : ,To Mr Hamersley—l cannot say.how many men were at work there, " : ’ Edwin Forward, expressman, of Temuka, said he: had for spine time past done carting, for . McCaskill,. ~and Rooney’s works. He believed he had done all their carting. l Ho had.kept an account of thenumber of loads ho had carted from Ist January to 31st March. On 21st February [here witness referred to an account book] he had parted six bales from the shed was not, branded or numbered. . The mark in the book is a drop of ink' I rubbed out. [Mr White did hot desire the book put in as, evidence,; but ID" Hamersley wished it Bo .pu.t in]. Witness had rubbed out the blot. Being not a good scholar he had made, blots in writing, but there was no writing under the blot, ' '■

. The Bench here examined the book, and insisted that there was a: wbrd under the blot.' ' , ' ■ ; 11 Witness,had no interest in, the, cafe, nor had be touched the book since tljese proceedings had been taken. That Ho odUld' • swear positively, v.No ( one- but himself ever touched the book., r

To Mr Hamersley—From .'January to the 21st February I carted" so many loads, I cannot say exactly hdtf : many. Five or six bales .Went to every load, on an. ayerage. [Witness‘ here 'tpeoified the number of. loads bn each occasibribf his carting]. During the week before the 21st some Parting was done ; on the 17th 36 bales, on the 18th 36 bales, on the 21st 6‘bales/and j6fi ; theF22hd;6,{bales were carted by me ; for, jMcpaskill and Rooney to tbp station. , 1 do not know whether there were 1 any' of them branded.;,-. 7", , ir v-. Reexamined—The , doubWenfry; bn the 21st shows two, f loadstone frqm,‘tbe shed and ithe other fron*;,the staiioji/to the shed. He'did’not* know where-ihe Wool catne from that, he' took fromrthe 'station to the Works. ; i ; *

To the can positively that there ,no brand •bn the I took away on the 25th." I ain ih f the habit of looking for brands. I: yppeat I swear positively . .that there was no brand. It is usual to brand scoured wool M.R. over T. This was not, so,

Ee-examined—Witness could not say whose property the wool was. Ho had never carted : scoured wool for them. He was accustomed to notice brands. The wool taken from the station to the works included wool, skins, and merchandise. From the 6th of January to the 21st of February thefe.ware a mixed- lot of wool and skins. . Sometimes a ton, of coal or so came; an occasional load may have been carried but as, a rule it was:wool and, skins,that I took.

Arthur George, Marsh, storeman to Matson and Co;, 'Christchurch, said on March 17 his firm received 12 bale 'of wool in store. There was a forwarding note with it, which witness produced. It shows a consignment from Moss Jonas, Timaru, to Rhodes, Christchurch. Witness sampled each bale ; it was all scouted wool. They were ordinary bales, but filled from the, side, instead of from the end. . Witness never saw bales so filled before. Witness had received other wool from McCaskill and Rooney’s sheds. These also were filled at-, the sides, the same ,as : the others had been. Witness’s firm received 194 bales on behalf of the Union Company. . Witness could not produce the Weights of the 194 bales. Ho had.had twelve years’ experience in wool, and had never seen bales so filled. To Mr Hamersley—l have never seen a press in which bales wore filled at the sides. I do not remember storing McCaskill and Rooney’s wool before this occnsion,; •’ -.iTo . the Bench—The wool . from McCaskill and Rooney had no. brands; the Union Company’s wool was branded except one bale, aud bad the words “Scoured by;”... ■.

Alexander Donaldson said that on February 21 last, he was stationraaater at Temuka. On 21st and 22nd witness received wool, on the latterday 12 bales. Witness produced the consignment note for 12 bales on account of McCaskill and Rooney—which shews they were consigned to Moss Jonas, From January 21 to March 31 there were 16 consignments from the firm, It would take a day to get out an account of the wool sent to the firm, J. E. S. Jackson said he was clerk to Miles, Archer, and Co. During March, he received the wool specified in the list produced, from McCaskill. To. Mr Hamersley—The accused do not do much business with Miles, Archer: and Co. My only reason for being here, is that your clerk asked me to come.. The prosecution did not ask me. To the Bench—The bales were all; marked, on one end M, and It. over T.,: on the other “ Scoured by James Fulton Marshall said he went 1 to the shed on January 21. He was, sent from. Christchurch by R. Wilkin and Co. to Mr Davidson, who sent .him; to Temukai He . was then in the employ of the Union Insurance Com* pany, which Mr Davidson represented J His duties were to superintend the working through of the City of Cash-: mere’s wool. He saw the members of the firm on bis arrival. Witness handed' the older McCaskill a note from Mr Davidson; who said it was all right and

hoped things would go on well. On Jan. 28 they had a conversation, the elder McCaskill and himself; he said he wanted to work up some of his own wool, and the ship’s wool would not be touched for some time. What use was there in his (witness’) remaining there ? He might as well take a walk. This is what the older McCaskill said. Shortly afterwards he and witness had a drive Between Temuka and Winchester. In returning McCaskill said he was sorry to see witness always so short of money, and said “ I’ll give you a few shillings, Mr Marshall.” McCaskill took out a few shillings and handed them to witness in the buggy, saying that it would do fpr ;1 general drinks.” At Winchester they both stayed an hour or two, thence they went to Geraldine. Witness had no business there and simply went with McCaskill They returned the way they came; halting a while at Winchester and having refreshments there, reaching Temuka again at 7 o'clock, and not returning to the wool works that night. A few days after they had another drive to Pleasant Point, at Mr McCaskill’s request. They reached the Point in time for McCaskill to catch the Albury train. Witness took the horse and buggy home and on arrival had a look round to see what had been done in his absence. It was about 11 o’clock one morning, about ten days after the last trip, they had another journey, witness riding and Mr McCaskill driving ; they went fishing ; they sometimes used to go shooting. On Feb. 21 witness went to Ashburton with McCaskill. Witness had no business: at Ashburton. They went by express train- They returned next day by., the evening train, McCaskill paid witness’ expenses, fare and all. On March 23 the firm had some of the fire-wool. . McCaskill had mentioned . that he, wanted to work up this wool and lie told witness he had some unpleasantness abbut his hank business. He told witness that as be (witness) was fond of riding he might have the use, of his horse. He also said that if everybody was friendly he might make witness a .present. It was to be. money, £lO or £2O. In the shed witness saw 19 bales, marked with two red stripes. It waa damaged by fire. It was sent away some time after witness arrived. It ’was witness’ duty to have the Insurance Company’s wool sent away, when so instructed by Mir Davidson. Witness used to inform Headquarters regularly of the quantity sent away. At this stage Mr White appplied for a further remand in order 1 to produce certain material evidence, which he had as yet been unable to procure through want of time. MrHsmersley strongly objected to such a request - as being quite.unfair to the accused. The Bench considered there was absolutely no - evidence of larceny. They retired for a few moments, however, and,;ph returning, put one. or two additional questions to the last witness, eliciting the information ,that he had not seen any wool abstracted, or missed any at anytime. The Bench therefore dismissed the case,