LOSS OF TURKEYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1921, Page 7

LOSS OF TURKEYS.

WEALTHY FARMER AND WIDOW. AN UNUSUAL CASE. f At the Wanganui Supreme Court Janies Maher, of Obingaiti, charged with stealing turkeys, was found guilty of receiving turkeys, knowing them to have been stolen. He was remanded till Saturday for sentence. James Maher ia an Ohingaiii farmer. • He was charged alternateveley with the : theft of seven turkeys and of receivI ing seven turkeys knowing they had ; been stolen. | -he Crown Prosecutor, Mr. Marshall, • the turkeys had been stolen at . lime and were later found on the 1 dvAcndant’s property. The onus was . on the accused to prove how he got ! them. The accused was a wealthy man, and the person from whom the turkeys were stolen was a widow, Mrs. Tricker, I living about six miles away. It might be strange for a rich man to steal tuti keys, but strange things happened in this world. Because a man was rich it did not follow that he was honest, or that because a man was poor it did not follow that he was dishonest. Mr. Marshall then outlined the evidence which, the prosecution would call. Florence Tricker, a widow, living near Ohingaiti, said she had had 14 turkeys, brown and grey. Tfie turkeys were very tame, their wings were cut, and they could fly very little. On the night the turkeys were taken she heard a motor ear and soon heard noise among the turkeys. Next day she found the turkeys scattered and a number missing. On the following Tuesday night her son and a policeman brought five home and liberated them in the pen. She called the turkeys, and the whole lot came and fed out of her hands. She was quite sure they were her turkeys. Strange turkeys would not mix together for some time. Last Sunday morning a motor car came down the road and stopped just past her gate. Some time later Mrs. Maher came to her gate and said Maher wanted to speak to her. She called her son. Maher was there with four other men. He said: “It will go against your case if you don’t show me those turkeys.” Alan John Tricker, son of the previous witness, gave corroborative evidence. He had examined the car tracks and the footmarks at the stump and at the place where men had got over the fence. There were two or three sets of footmarks. He followed them about six chains along the road to a sand cutting, where the men had evidently got on to a car. Witness went back for his horse and tracked the car. The tyres were easily distinguishable, and he followed the tracks four, or four and a half miles, to the Pecker Road, up which Maher lived. Then he came home and rang up the police. Along with the constable he followed the track again on Tuesday. Constable Sherman went to see Mrs. Maher while witness stayed with the horses. Ho saw three sacks on a fence. In them were feathers and fresh droppings. The constable took charge of them. When asked what was going to be done with the two killed turkeys, Mrs. Maher said they were to be eaten. She said they had been shot on the farm. The Maher’s turkeys (17) were large, dark birds. Near the top of the cliff were five others by themselves. They were smaller, and of a lighter color.' A strange lot would very seldom make up to others. The five turkeys were his mother’s, being of the same class, and later in the day they were caught without any trouble. In a small enclosure near the woolshed there were turkey feathers and fresh droppings. Maher came home about 5 o’clock with his four sons, one of whom was riding. The constable accosted Maher, told him about the search warrant, and asked him to explain various things. Maher said he had shot the turkeys, and he said the feathers were down in a gully, but these feathers were more than a week old. Maher said he had carried the two turkeys in the sacks to the place where they were plucked. The mob of 17 was rounded up, but , only one (which flew into a fence and broke rts neck) was caught. Its wings , had not been cut for six months, and it was not the same class as the five. Maher said his car had not been out on Sunday night. Witness brought the five turkeys home. White tape was tied on their legs and they were put into a pen till next day, when they mixed with the other turkeys and came to his mother when called. Constable Sherman, of Taihape, gave corroborative evidence. When Mrs. Maher said her boys had shot the two turkeys, he examined them but saw no bullet marks. In regard to the five turkeys, when seen on the hillside, Mrs. Maher said they were theirs. The 17 were very wild and of an entirely different class from the five. The five looked like those at Mrs. Trieker’s and their wings were cut also. Maher said he had shot the two turkeys and carried them in the sacks, and that the feathers were in a valley. The heap of feathers, witness thought, were about a week old. and he asked how feathers and droppings could be in three sacks when two dressed were carried. After a pause Maher said, “Oh, well, I shot them round the bend and carried them here arid then plucked them.” When the turkeys were mustered by the dogs they flew over two fences and witness remarked that none of their wings was cut. Later he said, referring to the enclosure: “We had our turkeys in a fortnight ago and cut their wings.” Witness asked Maher if the five turkeys were his and he said: “Yes. I want you to return the sacks also.” Maher denied that he or his sons had been out on Sunday night, and no one else could have been. This closed the case for~’’the prosecution.