SUPREME COURT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 78, 14 November 1911, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

WELLINGTON SESSIONS. (Pit Press Association.) Wellington, November 13. The Supreme Court criminal sessions opened to-day before the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout). There* was a light calendar. One young woman, whq_appearcd for sentence on 1 charge of forgery, was admitted ; to probation for twelve months. Jolm Belcher, who admitted theft, was ordered to J)o confined at Rotorua Inebriates’ Home for one year. Leslie Ryan, at present serving three months in Lyttelton Gaol, was charged with a breach of a probation order granted in July last, and was sentenced to two years’ reformatory treatmeht,fit the expiration of his present sentence. Frank Roberts was found guilty of the theft of a hamper , containing leather samples, and . was remanded for sentence till to-morrdw morning. Cecil Braithwaite, for theft cl three diamond rings, was found guilty. Sentence was deferred till the morning.

THE CHRISTCHURCH SITTING. A LENGTHY LIST. Christchurch, November 13. Tiie criminal sittings were opettgd to-day before Justice Denniston. His Honor, in addressing the Grand Jury, said the calendar was a fairly lengthy one, and some of the cases were of a serious character. He regretted that there were two or three very objectionable cases. There was one very peculiar case, that of a jealous .woman, who, finding her young man going out with someone else, was al loged to have broken into the other woman’s house and thrown cayenne pepper in her eyes. Fortunately, no serious injury had been inflicted. It was the duty of the jury, if they found a prima facie case, to return a v bill accordingly. , , ; Andrew Send) was charged with being an habitual offender. - Prisoner was declared an habitual criminal, and ordered to be detained in custody 7 until such time as ho had satisfied the authorities that ho had abondoned tiie course of life he had in the past followed.

In the case of Grace Agnes McTaggart, who had pleaded guilty to bigamy, his Honor said that there were no wider degrees of crime than in bigamy. The recent' case .was peculiar in some respects and prisoner would be ordered to comp up for sentence when called upon, provided she paid the costs of the proceedings. Mary Browne, a young woman, came up for sentence for concealment of birth. Mr Hunter, who appeared for her, said that she had been three months in gaol prior to tho last Court sessions, and sijo had since then been three months in the Samaritan Hoine. His Honor said that prisoner had practically been in gaol for six . mouths so that under the circumstances he Would only sentence- Her to three ■months’ imprisonment dating from the last sessions, so that she would bo now practically discharged. ~ It Norman Ramsay Caine up for sentence on a, charge of breaking and entering. Mr Stringer stated that prisoner hud just come out of gaol, when hp went to his' mother and asked her ipf -.assistance. She bought him a set of carpenter’s tools for Jus trade, and within four days he had committed liis present offence. He was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment. - :

Con Twomoy, a scventeon-ycar-old youth, pleaded guilty to a charge -of iucjat-eait assault, \<uau ordered to come up for sentence when called,Upon.

Charles Amos Houston, who pleaded guilty to two charges of forging' and uttering cheques, received two ■.years’ imprisonment on eacji charge,, til© sten-teuqesMo--be concurrent. Margaret Christina Porter, for whpjh Mr Cassidy appeared, pleaded; hot guilty .to breaking and entering,.the dy/qJling of Charles Dodd, hut .guilty to ufalawfiilly assaulting one Mary O’lVnnell. The Crown Prosecutor accepted the plea. His Honor isnid lio was sure neither the country inor the woman had anything to gain by sending her to gaol, but then there whs the question of example to consider. It "‘was no use in fining a woman of this sort, because no doubt it would come out of the mouths of her children. She was ordered to enter into one surety of £25, and also to come up for sentence when called upon. Thomas Yeitch, for whom Mr Leatham appeared, pleaded not guilty to receiving a cheque for £lO from solno person unknown, knowing the same to have been dishonestly obtained. Accused was convicted and sentence deferred.

AT DUNEDIN. ANOTHER LIGHT. 1 CALENDAR. Dunedin, November 13. The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court opened to-day before Air Justice Sim, ! who congratulated the district on the lightness of the calendar, there being only three cases for hearing. Alexander Walquist was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for breaking and entering ,a htit near Oamaru, and on a charge of being a rogue and vagabond George Ernest Kelly was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and ordered to he detained for reformative treatment for a period not exceeding five years. George Marshall, charged with obscene exposure in a public'place and alternatively with committing an indecent act,,TJ&B acquitted. •