RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 22, 28 December 1863, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Thursday, 24th December. (Before M. Price, Esq., R.M.) Drunken mess. — Two persons ware fined, one 20s and the other ss, for tha ofisncs of drunkenness. The Übsitlts. — John Smith was charged with resisting the police. The defendant's mate had been arrested for drunkenness, and on the principle of never deserting a friend in distress, the defendant had endeavoured to rescue him from the hands of the Philistines in blue. The Bench sentenced him to a week's imprisonment. Th* Forgery Case. — Elizabeth Adams, who had been remanded on a charge of forging a cheque on the Bank of New South Wales for £960, was again brought up. Mr. Fitzgerald Wentworth, a squatter at Five River Plains, gave erjdence that the signature of "■ F. Went--worth," on the cheque was not his, although it was evidently intended to imitate it. He stated thfet he did not know the prisoner, nor had he given her or anyone any authority to use his signature. The evidence of Mr. Jamieson, the manager of the Bank, was taken in reference to the conversation which he had with the witness Williams, who brought the cheque to the Bank, already given in the previous examination for uttering the cheque. Detective Thomson also gave similar evidence to that he gave in regard to the arrest of the prisoner on the previous charge. The prisoner was committed for trial, the Bench intimating that bail would be taken for her appearance. The Ghost is Trouble.- -Jane Hunter, the lady who some nights ago had been terrifying the constabulary in the streets by her impersonation of " the ghost," was again made to appear before the Bench by Serjeant- Major Chapman under the Vagrant Ordinance. It ( seemed that the defendant, after her release on the previous day, had gone into several of the places of business and sadly annoyed the owners by her conduct. The magistrate remanded her for a week — ostensibly for tbe purpose of making inquiries, but in reality that the* cooling regime of the gaol might produce a beneficial effect on her over.heated brain. After the adjournment of the Court, while the woman was waiting to be conveyed to gaol, the attention of the constable in charge being taken off her for an instant, she made ■ very clever attempt to escape from durance rile. Springing past' the clerk, who was leisurely filling up tbe document for her legitimate detention, she disappeared through the open window, and made across the Government reserve behind the Court. The constable *' followed the leader " by an equally agile harlequin jump through the window, and directed by the view-halloo of the clerk commenced an exciting chase across the open ground. Enclosed by tbe fence, the game could not escape, and was brought back to the cage, where, until she was safely removed, not only were the windows and the chimney itself closely watched to prevent a second attempt at escape, but even the key-holo wa» strictly under the watch and ward of the constable, who was under the impression she might flit by that meant of egress.