SUPREME COURT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10158, 7 February 1911, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

CHRISTCHURCH CRIMINAL " ' SlTTlNGS. : '<'■■'■■■. v

By Telegraph—Press Association

CHRISTCHURCH; Last Night. The Supreme Court criminal sittings opened to-day, before Mr Jus- i tico (Denniston. William Burridge, •' a young man, was brought up for sentence on four charges of breaking, entering, and theft. His Honour imposed a sentence of four months' imprisonment with hard labour, to run concurrently with the balance' of the prisoner's present j sentence of ithree months. George,.' Love, alias Simpson, alias Wallace, ,j alias Rowden, alias Taylor, appear-J sentence,for A sea*'\ of four months'*umprisonmentV was imposed, His Honour explaining that it should bo considered as a six months' term, as the prisoner.. had been awaiting sentence for two months. Denis Patrick Mahoney was!presented to be declared an habitual criminal. His Honour said ; that the prisoner's record., brought j him' within the Statute. He had been convicted on over'thirty occasions, for : offences against the welli • being of the. pxiblic, yet. he; claimed : to be as -law-abiding as the ; average citizen of Christchurch. There was no course open but to declare the prisoner an habitual criminal.'. Fran--cis William Garner, who was, .also i presented to.'--be declared an habitual I criminal, pleaded for leniency. He I said that he was a, married man ■h forty-eight, years of age, and conj fessed tiuit he f had been a bit way-;; I ward in his youth. The Crown :Prose T 'i | cutor .said that the prisoner had'l | spent most of his time in gaol since i lie came u&der the notice r of ~':tlie I police in 1901.,, His last was in connection with one of a series of .fifteen thefts of carpenters' tools.. His Honour said that piisoner was exactly the class of man for whom the statute was intend*!. The order was made declaring him an habitual criminal. Edward Joseph Reid was charged that on 19th October last he forged a certain authority for the delivery of goods purporting to be given by Mason, Struthers and Co., and uttered rhe same to one Denton. His Honour inflicted a sentence of six months' , imprisonment with hard labour, to be concurrent with the previous sentence. John Lee, an elderly man, was charged that on January 14th he stole-from the person of Christina Johnston..a peggy bag aiid contents. Accused was convicted j. and sentence was deferred till to-morrow. William Gibbon Thompson was charged .on two. counts with stealing on Novemlber 23rd one gold ring an t j ether articles of jewellery, 'th- j property of N. Martin, St. Albans, and with receiving, on 26th November, » gold ring,- knowing the in j have been dishonestly obtained. The : h'.'-irii/g was not concluded when the ' •i urt adjourned.