RESIDENT MAGISTRATE COURT.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 701, 23 August 1870, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE COURT.

Satubdat, August 20. (Before J. Giles, Esq., R. M.) INSULTING AND THREATENING LANGUAGE. O'Conor v. Maguire.—This case had been adjourned from the previous day for the evidence of John Grady. O'Conor stated that he had tendered Grady his expenses, but the witness declined to attend, and he would not press for his appearance. He was prepared to let the case go without Grady's evidence. For the defence Mr Pitt called Eugene O'Conor, who stated that he had had a conversation with Mr Sheahan relative to the prison labor. Witness did not say to that party that he could have the jacket off Maguire ; at least not in the way counsel suggested. The conversation took place prior to the occurrence now the matter of complaint. Previous to calling Maguire to give evidence, Mr Pitt asked the Bench whether it concurred with him that the testimony of the witness was admissible. According to the Act, he was perfectly satisfied that the defendant might be put upon oath. After some discussion the Bench ruled that Maguire's evidence was admissible. James Arthurs Maguire, sworn: On the 12th instant I accompanied Mr Dobson to inspect the works being executed by the prisoners. We saw O'Conor in Bright street. He spoke to Mr Dobson about getting the prison labor, and stated that he would provide the gravel. Mr Dobson replied that anyone might have prison labor if they found the sand. O'Conor then went away, saying he would have to get Maguire's men entirely, and we saw him again at the lower end of Cobden street, near his hotel. He has two sections there. After a few minutes' conversation in Mr Dobson's presence, the latter went away with Pell, and I awaited his return. O'Conor then spoke to me about bringing my light artillery to clear the stumps on and around his sections, together with draining and forming Cobden street. I said it was ridiculous ; that everyone holding sections in the bush might, with equal reason, expect me to follow them up and clear for them, and that the prisoners were for the present occupied elsewhere. O'Conor replied " Well, by , I will have it done, and no thanks either to you or Dobson ; and you had better look out for yourselves. AH your billets are very rickety, and, if you do not mind, I might, before a fortnight, take the jackets off you. I will see that you Government will not be so independent." He also spoke of his influence in Nelson being more than that of any two members of the Executive. I replied that he might use his miserable threats and petty influence with some fools, but that I could afford to despise both as I would the bark of a cur dog. He angrily asked if I called him a cur. I said no, but I despised his attempted tyranny as I would the bark of a cur dog. He then swore by , that he would take the velveteen jacket off me before a week. He would let me see that the Buller lion was not to be spoken to by a d d Government like me. I replied : I now say O'Conor you are a cur, and a most contemptible cur; furthermore you are a low, foulmouthed bully, but in my eyes not one inch a bigger man than you were eighteen months ago, when I was about kicking you down stairs from the Commercial Boom of the Post Office Hotel, when twenty gentlemen were present to witness your ignominy. He continued his abuse, saying that my clothes were too good, that I was too well dressed, and that he would teach like me in the Government service who he was, and what he could do with them. I said that he might bless the present hour that I was a Government officer, for were I not, in my one hand I would take him by the back of the neck and duck him up and down in the Buller river; I would teach even the Buller lion to carry a modest tail. I previously had repeatedly told him to go and mind his business, that I was minding mine. He said that he would make it his business to keep an eye on sharks and loafers receiving the public money, and who were only servants to him. I replied that I had often seen men arrested upon less provocation than he was offering, and that the sooner he set a guard upon his mouth the better ; that even Buller lions had only a limited range to howl over, and if they exceeded that boundary, they might find themselves but miserable mice. He then said he would summons me.

Witness further related a conversation with O'Conor, in the presence of J. Graham on July 31st, when he was desirous that the prison labor should be directed to Cobden-street. He said he had bought a section for £3O, and on the previous night had given £SO for the Golden Hope Hotel. O'Conor said he had bought the section because he knew Mr Sheahan was after it. Witnes replied that it would be three months before they reached Cobden-street, and that the District Engineer directed the work to be performed. O'Conor then said that he would see Dobson the next morning, and if the latter did not con-

sent he had better look out for himself; that he was not very well pleased with the work he had recently done at the wharf, but, by G ! if he dared to refuse to have Cobden-street done at once, he (O'Conor) would telegraph to Greenfield. He added that he could have anything he liked done by letting them know in Nelson ; that the there were afraid of him, and looked on him as the Buller lion, and were, in reality, afraid of him. T. Sheahan gave evidence as to a friendly conversation with O'Conor with respect to the street improvements. Witness blamed O'Conor as having been instrumental in reducing the £IOOO voted for that purpose. O'Conor then referred to the prison labor, and, speaking of Maguire, said that he would have the jacket oiF his back. Witness added that he had not at once made the statement to Maguire, but, on the latter informing him of the contemptuous and malicious manner in which O'Conor had spoken of him to Maguire, although apparently on the best of terms with witness, he was so incensed with O'Conor's double-dealing, that he related what had been said to him about Maguire. Mr Pitt addressed the Court shortly. He said it was unnecessary to comment upon the evidence. The complainant had shown extraordinary impudence in bringing such a case into Court, and he trusted his Worship would coincide with the view and dismiss the complaint with costs. His Worship was of opinion that the complainant should either have, enforced the presence of the witness Grady, or withdrawn the complaint. Upon the evidence the complaint was not made out, and the witnesses for the complainant might wi th equal or, indeed, greater effect have been called by the defendant. The evidence of Mr Sheahan inclined him to the belief that complainant had been influenced by malice in bringing the action, and he should therefore dismiss the complaint with costs.