SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 18 November 1907, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

Per Press Association. Auckland, Saturday. At tiie Supreme Court to-day, before Mr Justice Denniston, Edward McDonald, a young waiter, who had stabbed another with a file, was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon. His Honor remarked that if the prisoner had not pleaded guilty he would probably have been acquitted on grounds of great provocation. In the case of Richard Harland, 43 years of age, .charged with a criminal offence against his own niece, the jury found tlie prisoner guilty. Counsel for the prisoner ask„,; leave to apply to the Court of for a re-trial* on the grounds that" was against the weight of question had been put to the jury by his Honor: "Did the prisoner believe the girl to bo over 10? If so, had he reasonable cause for such belief?" The jury had ignored the question and had found—"We believe there arc reasonable grounds for believing that prisoner knew the girl was under the age of 10." Counsel submitted that there was no evidence to support that. The jury had practically disregarded the whole of the evidence except the fact of relationship, which had swayed them to an undue extent. His Honor said the question was: "Was the prisoner's intimacy with the family sufficient to justify the jurv's finding?" lie did not feel quite'clear himself. He promised to consider the matter.