SUPREME COURT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2164, 17 February 1891, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

TiMAßxr—Fbiday, Feb. 13th. Before His Honor Mr Justice DennistoßD. ACTION FOB DAMAGES. J. S. Waitt and E. P. Burbury v. H. E. Parker, claim £SCO. Mr H. Newton, (Oamaru) for plaintiffs, Mr George Harper (Christchurch), instructed by Wynn-Williams and Son for defendants. This was a claim for loss of sheep, fences, and pasturage, and permanent damage to pasture on 684 acres of the Clarksfield Estate, near Waimate, by fires which were lighted on defendant's Elephant Hill station on 16th May last, as alleged, by the instructions of defendant's manager. Gross negligence was alieprfrf. as a violent nor'-westGr was blowing in the direction of ularksfield from where the fires were lit. The claim was made up of 75 sheep burned to death £3O ; injury to about 100 others, £2O; damage to fencing, £2; damage to 684 acreß of native pasture by its complete burning out, loss of grazing thereby occasioned, £300; and the balance for losses not yet ascertained, due to the burning out of the grassAfter a great deal of evidence had been taken counsel addressed the jury on the assessment of damages, and His Honor directed them on the basis of assessments, and after a short retirement the jury returned a verdict for £SO for sheep killed and injured, and £136 16s (equal to 4s per acre) for destruction of pasture. A question was reserved whether the latter amount should be reduced by the subtraction of the 169 acres of Crown lands burned over, the plaintiffs being in the occupation of this land, but having at the time of the fire no legal title to it. The question of costs was also reserved.

"Wellington, Feb. 12. In the Supreme Court the Chief Justice quashed the conviction entered by the Kesident Magistrate against John McDermott during the strike. McDermott was charged with assaulting free labourers, and was sentenced to two months' hard labour on each, of the thre© charges, the sentences to be cumulative. McDermott had served one sentence, and it was from the others that he appealed. His Honour ruled that the verdict was against the weight ot the evidence. Invercabgill, February 13. The case of Simson, auctioneer, of Gore, v. the Colonial Bank and his late partner, Elsworth, in which damages ameunting to £IO,OOO were claimed, was settled out of Court, but the nature of the settlement has not yet transpired. The jury assembled at two o'clock only to be discharged,