DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8, 14 May 1913, Page 5

DOMINION NEWS.

BETTING IN A BILLIARD ROOM. [Per Press Association.] Wellington, May 13. Joseph Richards was to-day fined £2O for betting in a public place, the Magistrate holding that a billiardroom was a public place. CHRISTCHURCH SESSIONS. Christchurch, May 13. At the Supreme Court, Eugene Allen, a tramway conductor, charged with theft, was found not guilty. Sentence was deferred in the case of Albert Jennings, found guilty of stealing a lady’s bicycle. Tbos. Sterling pleaded not guilty to a charge of having stolen thirteen fishing nets, valued at £29 ss. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy, on the following grounds: (1) Of previous good character, and (2) that the prisoner originally took the nets without intending to deprive the owner of them, but afterwards in assisting to conceal them be was actuated by the fear of the consequences. As it is not known what the above verdict amounts to, the matter is to be discussed before the Court to-morrow morning, to ascertain what the real verdict is, and in the meantime the prisoner was allowed to go free on bis own recognisance.

Eugene Allen, tram conductor, charged with perjury in connection with his evidence at the inquest on Mi ss E. E, Combs, was found not guilty. ItE-CAPTT'RED PRISOXERS. Wellington. May 14. Patrick Donovan and Thomas John Lewis, who escaped from Terrace Gaol last week, were to-day sentenced to an additional six months. Both pleaded not guilty to the charge of breaking, entering, and stealing clothes, and were committed for trial.