ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1171, 29 April 1884, Page 3

ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES, ETC.

At the K.M. Court, Timaru, yesterday, Mark Christie alias Thompson was charged with the forgery and uttering of a cheque for £49. The evidence proved the offence, and bo was committed for trial.

At the R.M. Court, Timaru, on Saturday, a youth named Frederick Murphy was charged with having on the 24th April committed an indecent assault on a little girl of about 10 years of age, named Mabel Bishop, at Pleasant Point. He was remanded till Monday, when he was again brought up. ft appeared the child was going home from school when she was met on the road by accused. After hearing a good deal of evidence the Bench dismissed the case of assault, and ordered him to gaol for one month for indecent exposure. A boy, ten years of age, named Johnson, was found lying insensible through drink at Woollcombe’s Gully, near Timaru, on Sunday last. The boy had to be taken to the Hospital for medical treatment. At the R.M. Court, Timaru, on Saturday last, a yonng man named Ernest Davis, a butcher, was charged with having on Friday night committed an assault with intent on a girl named Alice Smith, whom he had accompanied home from tha theatre. He was remanded till to-morrow, bail being allowed. John Anderson, a bushman, has been killed at Makarau, Auckland, by a falling log. Joseph Henry Greener, a gunsmith, was found in a shop in Colombo street, Christchurch, on Saturday afternoon, with two bullet wounds in his head and a revolver by his side. He never spoke, and died the same night. It is supposed he shot himself, and that tha ball passed through his head making two wounds. He had been drinking for the past month. He leaves a wife and three daughters. A peculiar assault case has been heard at Balclutha. George Mitchell met Miss Campbell, a pupil teacher, coming from school, and slapped her on both cheeks, struck her a severe blow on the forehead with his fist, knocked her hat off, and made her nose bleed, exclaiming at the same time, 1 You brute, I will kill you.’ Mitchell alleged that Miss Campbell had severely punished his daughter, and that meeting her he lost his temper and boxed her ears. He was fined £5 and costs.

An inquest was commenced at Christchurch on Friday, on the body of a little girl who bad come by her death by some cause unexplained. The first witness called was Elizabeth Carr, who deposed : I am the mother of deceased. She would have been two years and ten months old on the Ist of next month. I was inside the house at half-past three yesterday afternonn, when my little boy Jesse came in and told me that Anna was lying dead on the road. I went out to the child, and she did not sigh or more. I took her into the bouse and put cold water on her face. I saw a graze on botli sides of her head, which was much swollen, i put her feet into hot mustard and water. She did not rally after the cold water, though she breathed twice. I took the child to Dr Mickle, She had not been out more than ten minutes. There was one little girl playing with her, but she was away, and could tell nothing of the accident. The child was subject to fits, hut it is three or four months since she hist had one. The fits were frequent, sometimes two or three in a week. There were no stones on ihe road likely to make the abrasions. Dr Mickle gave a minute description of the appearance of the child and of the ■post mortem he had made. The head was much swollen, and there were abrasions of the skin on the left ear, the left temple, the centre of the forehead, and on the right temple. Death had respited from the injuries sustained by the brain, injuries which must have been produced by external violence. The injuries could have been caused by the wheel of a cart passing over the head. This would account for their being on both sides.

Great violence must have been used. The injuries could not have been caused by a fill on the it a cl. Inspector Feeder asked for an adjournment, as the matter had only been reported to the police at ten o’clock that morning, and they had not bad time to find the driver of another cart which had been seen at the time of the accident. Dr Cowan accordingly adjourned the inquest till the 2nd prox.— Press.