RESIDENT MAGISTRATES COURT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2265, 10 October 1891, Page 3

RESIDENT MAGISTRATES COURT.

Geraldine —Friday, Oct. 9th, 1891

[Before H. W. Moore and R. H, Pearpoint, Esqs., J.P.’s] STEALING OATS.

Alfred Hoskins was charged with, on the Bth day of October last, at Geraldine, unlawfully taking and carrying away half a bushel of oats, more or less, value Is, the property of James W. Pye. Accused pleaded not guilty, J, W. Pye, draper, Geraldine, deposed: My place pf business is next to that of Mr Hoskins, and at the back of my place is a stable. At the back part of the stable is a loose box, and the front part leads from the loose box into the stable, there being a partition Ik tween. There is a .door at the back, and a door at the front. The sample of oats produced in Court are similar to my own. Yesterday morning when I last saw my oats, there was a good bushel or a bushel and a half in the box. Next time I saw them I could see the bottom of the box. My boy came in and, told me what had happened, and I went in consequence of what he had told me, and could see they had been taken away. It was a little after 5 o’clock when I went to see the box again. There had be no oats used by either myself or the boy during that time. I was with Constable Willoughby in the evening when he got a sample from Mr Hoskins’s feed box. lam perfectly sure that no else had been into the stable during the time which elapsed. No one had a right to go into the stable except myself and the ' boy. - To accused: Have no fowls knocking about the place. Never authorised my boy to kill any fowls seen about there. Have had no fpwls myself there for the past six months. William Thomas O’Brien, sworn, said he was in Mr Pye’s employment. About a quarter to five he went to feed the horse and found Hoskins in the stable. A box half full of oats was just inside the door. Hoskins was bending down. When he saw witness he went through by the loose box into the forage room and shut the middle door and the loose box door, and went outside the stablegot in among the trees and sneaked away along the side of the fence. Went round to Mr Gore and Mr Erskine, who were 'standing on the footpath, and told them. Watched him go round to the little shed at the back of his house carrying the box of oats. There was about two bushels of oats in the box when witness fed the horse before that on the same day. Hoskins did not have more than half a bushel in his box, ’Alfred Erskine: Was walking down the road and saw Hoskins alongside of Mr Pye’s stable with a box in his hand. Went down to'where Mr Gore was standing, when O’Brien came out and said Mr Hoskins had been in the stablei Hoskins was in a stooping position among trees when we looked again,and we saw him go over to his shed. The box was about the size of a candle box. Could not see if anything was in it. , James D. Gore gave corroborative 6vidGnc6* Constable Willoughby said he obtained the samples of chaff with oats in produced in Court from a box in Hoskins’s yard. .Arrested accused, who said he knew nothing of the charge. He got a search warrant, and found a bag of chaff in the forage room. Emptied the bag out, and found some oats in the middle of the bag, only not so many as at the top. The accused, who asked to give evidence, was.swom, and said he suspected on Thursday moming that he saw young O’Brien, or a boy very much like him, catch a fowl. The fowl ceased to “ holler,” and he concluded that he had twisted its neck. When feeding his horse he suddenly remembered about the fowl, and took a box in his hand, >. got over the fence, saw the fowl with its ’' neck twisted, and took it up, when the door '■ opened and O’Brien came in. He then took the fowl over to his own shed, with the intention of finding an owner for it, but that morning (Friday) someone cleverer than himself hqd,made off with it, and when he went for it it was gone. The Bench considered there was no doubt at all about the guilt of accused,and pref erer dto believe the evidence of the boy O’Brien, than accused’s cock-and-bull-story. There was a previous conviction of three months against him, and he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour. Accused expressed regret he had not been committed for trial. The Court then rose.