SUPREME COURT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3329, 8 October 1889, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

Wellington, Monday, True bills were found against D. 0. Menteath, horse stealing, and C. Williams, forging and utteriug, and 0. E, Beckman, for breach of the Bankruptcy Act. . No bills were found against George Harris and Wiremu Hatana, charged with malicious injury David Galium Monteitb, charged with stealing a horse, saddlo and bridle, the property of William Neill, of Mascerton, pleaded not guilty.. Mr. Bell prosecuted, and the prisoner was undefended. The evidence was much the same as taken in the Mnsterton R.M. Court, and published in the Daily, Accused denied signing a receipt to Gilbert lor £llos for the horso, and stated he had been thirty-two years in the Colony, and had never a stain on his character, Ho afterwards admitted being sontoncod to eight months imprisonment at Gisborno. Accused was found guilty and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labor. John Southoo, alias Street, pleaded guilty to a charge of altering an ordor for £2 to £B, and with uttoring the samo. Mr 801 l prosecuted, and the prisoner was undefended. The evidence for tho prosecution went to show that on the 17th of June last, the prisoner, being employed by his brother, a hush contractor named Robert Southee, at Palmerston,. received from him an order on Captain Hewitt for £2, When the order was presented lo Mr Kendall, Captain Hewitt's manager at Fitzhorbert, it was for £B. 'Mr Kendall, being in doubt as to what the figure was, asked the prisoner who said it was £B. Mr Kendall then gave him a cheque for that amount, The prisoner's statement was that his brother blurred the'- figure 2 in drying the ink on the order, and that tho prisonor did not notice till he got away from the house that it resembled an 8. The jury said they found accused guilty of uttering the altered order, but not of smudging tho figure. His Honor refused to accopt that verdict, and after again considering the matter, the Jury returned with a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner was acquitted. ■■■•■■ ■■ ! ' Tuesday. ' Eeckman's caso is being heard to-day, and is expected to occupj the Court all day. The grand jury havonot yet returned a Bill in the Benjamin perjury oases; Tho Grand Jury have been occupied all day. in considering the ind : otment of perjury preferred against Chief Detectivo Benjamin in connection with the Chemis case. The Grand Jury applied to the Chief Justice to have the names of Inspector Thompson and Detectivo endorsed on the back of the indictment so that they might be called, Mr Jellicoe refused to assent ... to this, and His Honor requested tho jury to consider whether it was necessary lo call the witnesses mentioned and then he would decide oil his own responsibility. The discussion is proceeding. CHiusTcmmcH, October 7. Mr Justice Denniaton, in charging tho grand jury this morning, made extended reference to the changes in

the law of cvidenco made last session, by which criminals may be examined on oath, and wives anil husbands give evidence for each other. Ho also drew attention to the dangerous position in which judges aro placed bv llio Acts coming into force the very moment they receive the Governor's assent at Wellington. It might lead to most awkward results, and it was advisable tuata.certain'... lapse of time be allowed so that it might k'physically, possiblo for the judge to know the 'law ho was administering,' Referring' to; the - Criminal Evidence Act, lie said by that Actiu the first place tholaßt remnant of a system which hadmadecertain witnesses incompetent had been swept away. Wives will bo competent witnesses fortheir husbands, and husbands for their wives, in criminal cases, as they have long been in oml cases. They are still, on natural consideration, not witnesses against each other. "I cannot," said he " but think the Act has removed in this respect an anomaly in the law of evidence- under which serious injustice must have occurred. The Act further provides that a person on trial for a criminal offence may tender himself in evidence, and may be examined and cross-examined on oath. This is a very important innovation in existing practice, and the results of tho experiment will doubtless be watched with interest, not only in this Colony but in other parts of the Empire. In connection. with this Act there is a point io which I should, through you, draw ' the public attention. As you may bo aware, an Act comes into force, unless itself cantitins soma provision to the contrary, on tha day it receives the Governor's assent. That is tho instant it becomes an Act, This Act was assented to on tho 16th September. Now it sO'happens that on that ■ day I was holding a criminal fitting >■ of this Court in Hokitika. I was, thorefore, supposed to bo administer, ing this Act at a time when I did not, and could not, know of its existence as an Act, much less of its provisions. Had anyone then being tried, beeii undefonded by counsel, it would have been my duty to have read to him a formula contained in the Act, and given him the option of giving his evidenco on oath. Fortunately, there was no. conviction, or a very serious difficulty would have existed,' anditmay havehadauawkwardconsequenco in all the Justices of the Peace Courts in the Colony, A similar anomaly exists in connection with another Act of the same session. By v tho Offences against tho Persons Act 1889, an important alteration has been made in the law raising the age of consent in certain crimes. This Act also came into operation the very day it becamo law in Wellington, Kow it is a legal presumption that everyone knows the law, and that ignorance of the law doos not excuse its breach. A man therefore might . be convicted for doing something which, however immoral, he could not havo known to bo a crime when he did it. J think it is not too much to ask that when important changes aro made in the administration of tho 1 criminal law and tho crimes created ; by statute such Acts should not como into operation until after Euch lapso of timo as would make it at least physically possiblo that thoso who have to administer the law, and those. • who may bo punished for breaking it, slnuld know of their existence. I think myself justified, gentlemen, as one called on to administer criminal/ law in this Colony, to take this, thalj only formal occasion open to mo, tot publicly draw attention to these considerations,

James Stewart, alias David Grey, for two charges of forgery and uttering, was sentenced to four years; Oharlos Villary Parker, for a similar offence on five charges, nine months; Joseph Earnsbaw, for horso Btcalmg nine months; Mark Bayliss, falsa pretenses (two cases), two years; Denis Murphy, alias Patrick Shine, unlawfully wounding, six months; Edmund Reynolds, larceny, five years; Walter Ullmer, breaking into and.Btealing, two years; W. Milligan, convicted of larceny, sentenced deferred till to-morrow. DiraEDiN, October 7. Daniel Ross pleaded guilty to several charges of pawning watches left for him to repair, and was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment; Mary Smith pleaded guilty to larceny of jewellery and Harry Thomson to larceny from a dwelling; sentence in each casiSk was deferred until to-morrow loflF 4 enable the Probation Officer to report, fy Thomas Henry Bichards pleaded ' guilty to having goue out of the Colony leaving his wife without adequate means of support. The accused had eloped to Tasmania with a girl, and as he is a master mariner, and if ho followed his occupation tho police would liavo a difficulty in keoping an eye upon hiui, the Judge put off dealing with tbocaso until to-morrow. William Robert Waite was sontenced to six months for larceny from a railway siding, and Samuel Eraser to four years for housebreaking, The;chargo of perjury against George Wallaco was only partly heard when' tho Court adjourned, After this is disposed of there are only tho cases against Waugh, late Post-office clerk, of larcony, launceville Local Industry(To tho Editor.) %, Silt.—l am informed that the directors of the Mauriceville Dairy Company (Limited), are milking rapid progress with tho factory building which, I understand, will bo com- , plcted by the end of November next. The machinery and plant are also i ordorcd and expected to arrive about tho same time, so wsi can fairly expect to seo this valuable industry in full swing by the end.of November.'. One strange feature about tho'afi'air' is Why do not tho Directors enlighten the settlers in the surrounding district a . little, or canvus more widely for shareholders. ,-As I:understand they have about 200 shares W dispose of. ' our leading man being at the head ot the concern, I think he would do well by giving the matter his careful consideration,—l anh,&cl •, ■•<■' > Outsider, Oct. 7,1889. The Patriarchs' AgesIt may safely bo said that a fifcy slight error in the translation of slrat Hebrew numerals has led to all tho apparent disparity, and on the authority of Genesis vi., 3, it may bo accepted that the age of the antediluvian was not to exceed 120 years, That passage reads: "And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that ho also is flbh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." As already remarked, the errors in the ages of the patriarchs as given in tho Bible may bo ascribed to the improper rendering of concrete jjt numerals by tho translators. The ™- j-vorsß Genesis v., 3, is properly Mi- '"'"

dered, and reads thus: '(Adnin lived 130 years, and begat ut son," otc, but if that verse lid bcon translated in tbo samo way as the fifth verse is in the Authorised version, it would rend Ihua: " Adam lived thirty hundred years, and begat a sont" This shocked tbo consciousness of the Christian translator, and he was driven to the truo ruin of the Hebrew uso in cases of concrete numerals, In the fifth verse the Authoiised Igjvcrsion reads; " And all t'io days ™that Adam lived were nino hundred and thirty years, and ho died," The truo reading by tho Hobiw rule would bo: "And all tho days of Adam which ho lived were a hundred and thirty and nine years, and be diod," making the entire ago of Adam 139 years instead of 930 years. Further, so primitive was tho systam of enumeration at the duto of the writing of Genesis that tho Hebrows had no means of writing nine hundred, or any number of hundreds above ono, without repetition or circumlocution, Jf Tho following are put forward as H the of tho patriarchs heforo the Dolugo, with tho remark that they are subject to a few uncertainties in tho numbers below ono hundred : Agoasjdvon Correct in the

By this the time-honoured proverb, " as old as Methuselah," is robbed of its point.

Name age. BiUo 1, Adam .. 139 .. 930 2. Snth .. 121 .. 912 3. Enos .. 114 .. 905 •1. Cainan .. 119 .. 910 5. Mahnlalei 1 122 .. S95 6. Jarcd ., 117 .. 9C2 * 7. Enoch .. ■ Ill .. 365 8, Methusekh 121 .. 9G9 9. Lamech.. "117 .. 777 10. Nonh .. 159 .. 950