COURTS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 173, 29 April 1872, Page 3

COURTS.

POLICE COUUT.—Satu rday. (Before Dr Kilgour J.l\) Stealing Quartz.— Charles Smith, alias Henry Marlcy, was charged with stealing five pieces of gold bearing quartz,value £l2, from the dwelling-house of John Sweeney, at Coromandel.—-Mr Bullen stated that prisoner was apprehended in consequence of information received from Coromandel, and applied for a remand to that place.— Prisoner was accordingly remanded to be dealt with by the Bench at Coromandel. Indecency. —James Ross, charged with indecent exposure in Williamson-street, on the evening of Friday last, was sentenced to one week’s imprisonment.

Bt'forc Dr Kilgour, Esq., J.D. ami Dr Sam, Esq., J.r Drunkenness. —Philip (a Maori) was charged with being drunk, and admitted that such was the fact.—lie was fined ss, or 24 hours’ imprisonment. Stray Horse.— Ed waul Hogan, charged with allowing a horse to stray in Greystreet, Oil the lGtli inst, pleaded guilty and was lined Is, or 24 hours’ imprisonment. Breach of Publican’s License—William Rose, landlord of the Thames Hotel, Shorthand, was charged with selling liquor between the hours of 10 p.m. on the 18th inst. and 6 a.m. on the following morning, contrary to the laws of his license.—The defendant nleaded guilty, slating that, he was sitting up waiting for n lodger when a cab came up with some people in it, and they were served with drinks more to got rid of them than with any other purpose. —Mr Bullcn said the parties who arrived in the cab were 3 prostitutes and 3 men with them, and that the landlady, Mrs Rose, was turned out of the house in ’her night-dress, and came to the police office at 2 o’clock in the morning to complain of her husband. The Bench fined defendant £5 and costs. Obstructing tiie Footpath. Peter Norbury was charged with obstructing the footpath in Brown street, by placing goods thereon, on the 20th inst., and pleaded not guilty. Constable Purcell having deposed to a quantity of goods being on the footpath for some hours, Mr Norbury said the things had only arrived by dray that day, and he purposely loft a space in front of his allotment on which to place goods. On this occasion lie got the things into the store as quickly as possible. The Bench dismissed the case | with a caution. | Creating a Nuisance,— James Fenton j was charged with obstructing 1 lie foot- . path in Pollen street, and also with ! neglecting to keep his premises clean, j whereby a nubuuc; was create. l. The j case of obstructing the footpath was disj missed ; as io the second olixmce, the IuI specter of Nuisances said he visited de- | fondant's pro .cues on i mu-day, and found ! the yard in a very dirty state. There was a quantity of decaying vegetable matter | lying about, from which a very offensive | sineil arose. The Bench lined defendant t 20s or seven days’ imprisonment in case of j non-payment. The fine was immediately

THE TARARU SPORTS.

It having been announced that several races would come off at Tararu on Saturday afternoon, in which the champion runner Austin and his con-frerc Edwards, the walking man, were to take part, a goodly number of people assembled about the time appointed for the sport to begin. The space which had been enclosed was surrounded by an open fence, through which anyone could see all that went on inside, and the consequence of this was that the great majority of those who came to see the sports did not enter the arena, but remained looking over or through the structure.

The first event was the mile walking handicap, for which there were three entries, Edwards (the champion), J. Williams, and J. Brown ; Edwards was to start from the scratch, Williams receiving 50 yards start, and Brown 75. Neither of the latter named gentlemen putting in an appearance, Edwards started alone, and accomplished the distance in eight minutes eleven seconds, which time lie could no doubt have beaten by perhaps 25 or 30 seconds had lie had an adversary to contend against. After this, there being only some 30 or 40 persons inside the fence, Austin declined to try and run his race unless the public came inside, and here we must say that we think he was perfectly justified in doing as lie did, though at the same time we consider the enclosing fence put up as almost as bad as nothing at all. In fact, we arc of opinion that, had they put up no fence, and simply asked for subscriptions from the public, the whole affair would have been a far greater success. Another mistake that was made was that Austin never came on to the ground, and great numbers present seemed to think that lie did not intend to do so, though lie was in reality waiting dressed tor his running. Had lie shown up, we fully believe that a large majority of those present would have paid and come inside the ring. As it was those few who did pay their shillings got nothing for them, and everyone was thoroughly disgusted with their trip to Tararu—the only people who benefited by it being the omnibus owners, the railway, and the publicans on the ground. In returning from the ground the engine on the railway was called upon to carry about 100 passengers in one trip, and the rate they travelled at was a caution, being so rapid at one time as actually to pass a small boy who was walking along the road. Several gentlemen who got tired of the slowness of the progress jumped down and walked, beating the train into Grahamstown by about ten minutes. Once the engine fairly gave in, and had to stop till a little more steam was got up. We should recommend the proprietors to have a more powerful machine ready when required, or else to supply the place of the present engine with a few hor. es, who certainly would travel quicker than the engine at present in use with anything like a heavy load on.