CHARGE OF MALINGERING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 157, 12 October 1910, Page 5

CHARGE OF MALINGERING

AGAINST A PRISONER. 1 i By Telegraph.—Press Association. J Dunedin, Last Night;. 1 A somewhat unusual case engaged th<J attention of Mr. Bartholomew, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday morning ana* to-day. A man named George Edward Smith,' at present undergoing a sentence of four years' imprisonment, was charged with pretension to illness from July 1 to September 13. Accused, who appearcl in the doek with a shield over his e\ -. pleaded "hot guilty." The gaoler (Mr. Seanlon) stated that Smith, had been sent from Invr-cargiU under instructions from the Undc:-Secre« tary of Justice that he was to b.- examined as to his eyesight. He. had been by Dr. Stenihouse to Dr. Lindo Ferguson, who examined his eyes. Ferguson gave to the ef* feet that the dilation of the left eye was, in his opinion, due to ofS drug. At the second examination the Idjjation hadi disappeared. The sight of tiK> eye was not totally gone. Dr. Stenhouse deposed that the prisoner told him .he hml been blind till the age of three years and turned up his left eyelid and showed .that a lachrymal gland 'had beepi. taken out. Dr. Ferguson's confirmed witness' impression thai tsher* was no blindness at all, but a,fnse of pure imposition. The aftei> wards asked to be put on labon'lffit witness declined to do this, waitingjfor instructions from .headquarters, h The prisoner made a to the effect that on March Mth nfilnvereargill he got chips of concret«in his eye and had been in the Jnvjeargill hospital in hed for weeks. Thefirouble went from the left eye to thK right, and he could see out of that onlyßirough the mist. He had many timffl when in hospital asked to be put feck to labor, w'' - ch did not look like llalingering. He had never told Dr. Stjpnhouse of the beginning of the trouble'because the doctor would not listen to him. After further examination the Magistrate adjourned the case till Friday.