RESIDENT MAGISTRATE COURT.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 788, 14 March 1871, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE COURT.

Westport, Saturday, March 11. (Before J. Giles, Esq., 11.M.) LARCENY. Edward Harris was charged, upon the information of Robert M'Farlane, with mis-appropriating a cheque for £B. John Corr, sworn, stated, that on February 21st he received dES from W. Logan and gave him tho cheque produced, dated tho same day in favor of a man named M' Kenzie. On February 24th he went to the Bank of New South Wales and found that the cheque had been passed to his account. By tiie Prisoner : I know that you were in Westport several days after tho cheque was drawn. 1 have seen you several times, and I believe that you were in the store. Robert M'Farlane, sworn, stated that, on the 21st of February, he gave Harris a letter addressed to John M'Kenzie, to be left at Oxley's store. He told the prisoner what were the contents of the letter, desiriug him to be especially careful, and, if possible, to deliver the letter to M'Kenzie in person. Harris returned in about an hour and enquired who was to pay for the carriage of the letter. AVitnes replied that M'Kenzie would pay him, and Harris then said that he would bring back a receipt. By the Bench: The envelope was directed : —John M'Kenzie, to Oe left at Oxley's store The envelope was an adhesive one. By the prisoner: I gave you the letter myself. It was not the young lady in the bar who handed it to you. I recollect that I gave you the letter. I do not recollect your saying that the letters had been sent forward by horse, but that you would attempt to send the letter to M'Kenzie. You said that if you did not find M'Kenzie you would leave the letter at Oxley's store. I do not remember that you referred in any way to your probable detention in town. 1 did not see you in my house on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, to my recollection. 1 did not enquire about the letter until Corr told mo that the cheque had been paid into the bank. I was told that you had absconded before I gave information to the police. Hugh Griffith Hughes, chemist, Gladstone-street, said that he knew the prisoner. On February 22nd he came into the shop to buy some goods. He gave an order, and returned in the evening about eight or nine o'clock. He then tendered witness a cheque for £B, in payment of the goods which amounted to 8s 6d. Witness cashed the cheque, giving the prisoner £7 lis 6d in return. He identified the cheque produced as the ono cashed by him on February 22nd. About nine o'clock on the morning of February 23rd, the prisoner came to him and asked whether the cheque had been paid in. Witness replied that it was too early, and wanted to know whether the instrument was informal. Prisoner l'eplied that it was all right, but requested witness to hold it over until 2 p.m. and he would redeem it in the meantime. If he failed to do so by that hour witness was to be at liberty to present the cheque for payment. The prisoner then explained his reason for the request, statiug that the cheque had been entrusted to him to give to a man at the reefs, but that cash would answer the purpose equally well; and as he had got a number of commissions to execute for parties who had not given him any money, and being himself short of money, he had used a few shillings knowing that it would be all right, and that he could easily replace the sum on his way to the reef. Witness asked the prisoner, if he did not think he had taken an improper liberty with another man's cheque, and the latter replied that he did not think so. Witness paid the cheque into his account at the Bank of New Zealand, Westport, on the 23rd of February. By the prisoner : I know that you have been in the habit of executing small orders for people up-country. I understood your reason, for desiring the cheque to be held over, to have been that you did not wish Mr Corr to know that his cheque had been cashed. Harry Guildford Smith, clerk in the Bank of New Zealand, Westport, identified the cheque produced. It was paid into the Bank by H. G. Hughes to his account on the 24th of February. J. E. Denniston, clerk in the Bank of New South Wales, identified the cheque as one presented to him by the previous witness on February 24. John Corr had a current account at that Bank, and the signature to the cheque he recognised as that of John Corr. At this stage of the proceedings Sergeant Kicly asked for a remand for a week, to enable him to produce the evidence of Logan and M'Kenzie. The prisoner was remanded accordingly, and tho Court adjourned.