RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1385, 19 May 1881, Page 3

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

(Yesterday,— Belore H. W. Northcroft Esq, R.M., and His Worship the Mayor. ) Breach of the Borough Bye-laws. Thomas Lees was charged with this offence by allow ing cattle to wander in the streets in Hamilton West. [Defendant pleaded guilty. He said he cattle had biokcn out of the paddock. He Mas going to sell them immediately. Fined Js> and co^ts. W. H. Kelly ■was charged with a similar offence by allowing horses to wander at lai ge. Fined Is and tents.

Civil cases. E. Silk v. Ja&. Caiterton. Claim £6 for -wages,. Mi Dyer for the plaintiff. There a\ .is no appearance of defendant. Judgment ior plaintili for full amount and CObt". W. Colenian, v. A. Vincent. Claim, £3 10. Mr O'Neill for the plaintiff, a«id Mr Dyer tor defendant. The claim w.\£ for the sen ice of two mates by defendant's horses, and grazing for four weeks for one mare. Mr ONeill called the defendant, who stated that the price agreed upon was -C 2, and no charge was to have been made for grazing. The plaintiff gave evidence as to the service of the mares. The pi ice was to have been £3. He would not have charged for the grazing if defendant had settled at the time. Cro-s-examined : Would swear that the defendant had agreed to f.'ive him £3. He did not tell the defendant that he would not charge for the grazing. It waH the custom to charge for grazing. For the defence, Mr Dyer called defendant, who i>aid he had at first told the plaintiff that he could not afford to send his mares to the horse, and only consented when plaintiff agreed to take £>. He had paid £1 on an order signed by P. and W. Coleman.— Order produced. Mr O'Neill objected to the order as it w ( as not stamped The Bench declined to take the order in evidence. Examination continued : Plaintiff had said distinctly that he would make no charge whatever for grazing. He did not wish them to remain in plaintiff's paddock, as there was no graas in it. Richard Vincent, son of the last witDess, sworn, said he remembered hearing his father and plaintiff make an arrangement to take the two mares for £2. Plaintiff told his father that there would be no charge for grazing. Cross-examined : The agreement was made on the road near his father's house, witness was standing near at the time. He did not remember the year in which the agreement was made, A similar agreement was made the year previous. To the Bench : One of the mares died soon after she came back from Coleman's. Judgment for plaintiff for £2, and costs. W. Coleman v. Crosby, balance of claim, £3 15s, for service of two mares and reaping. Mr O'Neill for plaintiff. Defendant had a set off of £4 12s, for damages done by plaintiff's horses. Mr O'Neill objected to the set off, as it was a question of damages. The objection was upheld. Defendant did not dispute the reaping. He disputed the item "service of two mares." The plaintiff gave evidence as to prices charged. Cross-examined : I promised you that if any mare should prove not to be in foal, I would give the service of the horse free the next season. Notwithstanding this I sold the horse. I made this promise after the season was over. Be-jgxamined : I did not consider that I was prevented by this promise from selling the horse. I had another and better horse, the services of which the defendant could have obtained if necessary. . This was the case for the plaintiff. ' Defendant, sworn, said M,r Coleman Lad, in the face of an agreement to give "the service of the horse the following •season provided the riiare did not prove to be in foal, sold his horse and left the district. He knew nothing about the other horse of which plaintiff had spoken. One, of .his mares proved jaot to be in foal. 1 The Bench said they must hold Mr Colemau to bia promise, If not a le^al,

it was a moral obligation. They would give judgment for amount paid into Court (£2 ss), without costs.

Alleged Perjury. [Before His Worship the Mayor.] Edwin Charles Shepherd was charged, on the information of Constable Wild, with that he did, on the 11th May, 1881, falsely, wickedly, and wilfully and corruptly commit wilful and corrupt perjury in the testimony which he gave upon oath in his examination at the Hamilton Police Court, on the date aforesaid, before Henry William Northcroft, Esq., a Resident Magistrate for the Waikato district, upon the hearing of a certain information then and there 'preferred by < 'onstable F. Wild against the said Edwin Charles Shepherd, charged with assaulting a boy named John Muir, and from the testimony given on oath by the said Edwin Charles Shepherd the said Resident Magistrate was misled and dismissed the said information. Sergeant McOovern conducted the prosecution, and the accused, who pleaded not guilty, was defended by Mr O'Neill. Sergeant McGovern detailed the particulars of the case, stating that since the hearing of the charges of ill-treatment the police had procured additional evidence, that of a boy named Hayers, who was present when the assault upon Muir was alleged to have been committed. The first witness called was Thomas Kirk, clerk of the Resident Magistrate's Court, sworn, remembered Wednesday, 11th inst. There was a sitting of the Court at Hamilton that day, before Mr H. W. Northcroft, R.M. Information was laid charging the accused with tying a boy named Muir to a dray and beating him with a supplejack. (The information was produced and read). He took the depositions on that occ.ision of the two children John Muir and Elizabeth Hill, the oath being duly administered. (Evidence of the boy and girl put in and read). The accused was examined on oath under the "Evidence Further Amendment Act 1875." Witness took the accused's evidence, and at the conclusion it was read over to and signed by the accused. The Court dismissed the information. Henry William Northcroft sworn said he was Resident Mngiftrate for the Waikato district. He remembered the llfch inst , on which day he sat at the Hamilton Police Court, and heard a charge preferred by the police agnin-t the accused for assaulting a boy named Muir, by tying him to a dray and beating him with a supplejack. Information produced. The evidence of the witnesses produced was given o l oath. The solicitor for the accused asked that Shepherd should be put into the box on that occasion. Witnp.«s consented, and the oath was administered to the accused by Serjjt. McGovern and he was examined through the Court, under the Evidence! Further Amendment Ach The accused denied emphatically that he had tied the boy Muir to a dray, and beating in other way described in the information. Evidence of accused read by the Clerk was to the best of his belief all that was said— most certainly it was the substance of it. After hearing this evidence and taking into account some discrepancies in the boy Muirs evidence, he dinmihsed the information. He subsequently directed that proceedings should be taken against Shepherd for perjury. John Muir sworn, gave evidence the same in effect as that given by him before the Resident Magistrate on the 11th instant. The witness was cross-examined at some length as to the hour at which the alleged assault took place in the morning, and occupations of the witness and Sam Hayers. He had not written or spoken to Hayers since he ran away. He had written to Ins mother on the 3rd nit-t. Shortly before Hayers ran away he told witness he was going. Re-examined : He wrote to tell his mother that Mr Shepherd wa^ treating him very kindly, and that S<un had ran away, tiis letter w,k, in answer to one from his mother. The accused told him what to wute, and saAV the letter afterwards, Ann Elizabeth Hill, sworn, also gave evidence similar to that before given by her. Samuel Hayers, sworn, said he was 1-1 yeais of age, and was at present residing at Onehunga. He had lived with the accused as a servant for nearly two years. He was so about two months since. He r<m away about the end of April. Knew John Muir and Lizzie Hill, who weie also sen ants at the accused's. He had often seen Muir beaten, and was sometimes beaten himself. Remembered Muir being beaten about tWo months ago, having been first tied to a dray, and held by witness and the girl Hill. Accused beat him with a suplejack. He gave him about a dozen strokes. If accused said he had not tied Muir to a dray and beaten him he would be sweating what wrs false. Since he ran away he had held no communication with Muir or the girl Hill. He saw something about the case before Sergeant Green at Ouehunga .spoke to him. While he was at Shepherd's he got up about t o'clock, had breakfast between 8 and 9. He had to milk the cows always and sometimes clean horses down before breakfast. On the morning of the beating Muir got no breakfast. Muir was generally flogged with a supplejack. He had seen accused flog Muir with a horsewhip, but could not give the time. Muir tried to run away the morning he was beaten. Witness was induced to run away from Shepherd by Mr Day of Whatawhata, who gave him a pound. Re examined : Witness had complained to Mr Day of tho treatment he received at Shepherds, that he got beaten pretty often. He thought it was because of these complaints that Mr Day had assisted him to run away. Sergeant McGovern, sworn, said he had duly administered the oath to the witnesses in the case against Shepherd, heard on the 11th inst. The accused, who reserved his defence, was then formally committed to take his trial at the next criminal sittings of the Supreme Court, Auckland. The civil case, Steadman v. Camp will come on for hearing this molting.

Animal ornaments are all the rage in jewellery. Those most in favour for bracelets are mice, May bugs, crabs, lobsters, (spiders, and flies. Sometimes they glitter with precious stones. They are attached to bands of plain gold. Bracelets and necklaces are more worn than ever, and earrings have been less worn than they have been for years. Necklets and bracelets of flowers are worn by young ladies in the evening. The rage at present is for enamelled jewellery. Gold dusted and powdered locks have appeared in home ball-rooms, and towering puffs and curls, adorned with glittering stars, crescents, and bandeaux of brilliants or jets, effectually complete the antique styles of dress now the rage. Willow - pattern cups and saucers printed in colors are being used largely in England for invitation to tea. Parisian acfressess wear paper lace a great deal. , It f« tough, soft, and ro effective on the stage it oaqnofc be distinguished from real , lace. By these, intelligent women it is considered the : height of folly to wear a lot of costly lace, which may bo rujned in a night, when a pound's worth of paper looks just as well.