RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3444, 8 January 1880, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT

THIS DAY. (Before H. Kenrick, Esq., R.M.) DRUNKENNESS. One man was charged with drunkenness, but it being a first offence, he was discharged. ASSAULT. '■ .'■ John Murray was charged with assaulting a boy named Thomas Bennett at Tapu by striking him with a slate frame. Mr Miller admitted that the defendant had chastised the boy in his capacity as a school teacher.

Mr Brassey addressed the Court on behalf of the complainant. Thomas Bennett, a boy of 11 years of age, was' sworn and deposed he went to the public school at Tapu. Mr Murray was master of the school. Recollected being flogged on a certain day in last month. He had missed a word in his lesson, and had then been beaten by the master. He was struck across the wrist by the frame of a slate. After the beating he went out to play, but returned to school in the afternoon. When he went to bed he felt bis back very sore from the beating, and could not sleep. His mother asked him why he was crying, and he told her his back was sore. His eldest brother, father, Mr Jacobs, and Mr McMaljon had seen his back with the bruises upon it. He had done nothing during the lesson except miss the word " crow." By Mr Miller—He had been beaten on the hand before he got it on the back, and in the first instance it was for mistakes in writing. The master asked him to ssy the word crow two or three times before he beat him. He was looking at a different place in the book from that intended by the master. He got a slap each time he said the word.cuckoo instead of "crow." He had been beaten frequently but only when he did wrong. The frame had been used for some time to punish the boys. Henry Moss Jacobs, and E. Holt, members of the school committee, gave evidence to the fact that the boy seemed to have been severely punished. - John Murray, the defendant, stated the boy called the word crow, cuckoo. ,He told him to say it correctly, but the, boy persisted in saying the wrong word. He then beat him for his conduct, and while doing so the boy called the word cuckoo repeatedly. George Hawkes, a lad, deposed—Mr Murray usually beat the boys with a cane, but on the 11th ult. he beat Bennett with a frame of a slate because he insisted on calling a word incorrectly. Bennett was not beaten harder than the other boys. Mr Murray usually read the lessons to the class.

Walter Plummer, another lad, gave corroborative evidence.

B. M. Hawkes, Chairman of the School Committee, deposed that he recollected a complaint coming before the Committee with reference to the master and one of his pupils. Mr Jacob's immediately got up and said he had had enough of Bennett's frivolous and groundless charges, and moved a resolution that the complaint be not entertained. It was not true that the Committee was always divided. He supplied Murray with groceries. He did not hear Jacobs and Holt saj that they had examined the lad. This concluded the case. His Worship summed up at length and found defendant guilty, fining him 10s and coats, £7 10s. He censured the School Committee for not enquiring into tho circumstances., at he considered it was part of their duty to see to the management ot the school. lIXEGAI, BLAUGHTBSING. - George Dalziel was fined 5s and costs for illegally slaughtering sheep in premises other than a licensed slaughterhouse. Court adjourned,