R.M. COURT, HAMILTON. Saturday.—[Before Mr Northcroft, R.M.]

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1706, 12 June 1883, Page 3

R.M. COURT, HAMILTON. Saturday.— [Before Mr Northcroft, R.M.]

False Pretences. Daniel Kknny, a young man, was charged with that he did on the 10th of May last, obtain by false pretences the sum of £1, from one Isaac Coates, with intent to defraud. Accused pleaded not guilty. Sergt. McGovern, who prosecuted, detailed the circumstances of the case. It appeared that accused, who was working for Mr Coates in the Waitoa swamp, had haJ. received all the money owing to him from the foreman, a man named Bernard Munay, and aftcrwaids represented that lie had not received anything, on the strength of which Mr Coates gave him £1, it being understood that Kenny would return to the work. This he did not do, and the prosecutor, on finding out that he had been defrauded, laid the present information. He called Beuiaid Munay, who said he was foreman for Mi in the Waitoa drainage woiks. Remembered the accused leaving the work. The amount owing to him was £1 4s. Witness gave him 10s. Theic was no^ squaiing up, and it was possible that accused was ignorant of the exact amount coming. To the bench : Accused worked about 11 days, at 8s Gd per day, out of which the charges for rations were deducted. Accused had also received stores for which no account had been rendered. Isaac Coates, sworn, said he was a contractor. He conoborated the statement made by Mr McGovern in opening the case. In addition he stated that when accused fit st entered his employment he advanced him £], entrusting him w ith a letter to the foreman, instructing the latter to debit accused with the amount of the advance. This letter never reached its destination. On the 10th May prisoner was actually in his (witnesses') debt. His excuse for coming to witness was that he had been unable to sec the foi eman, though he had been to his lesidunee. This -witness found to be false afteiwaids. Witness gave piisoner the £1, on the faith of the lattci'a assuiancc that he had £3 or £4 coming to him. Piisoner did not tell him that he had received any money from Mm lay. Constable Muiray deposed to arresting the prisoner at Ngai uawahia on the 4th, Kenny had left the job on which he was employed that morning •without a word of notice with the intention of making his way to Auckland This was the case for the prosecution. Piisoner made a statement protesting his innocence. He acknowledged ha\ing receh cd the money, but thought it was due to him. It was his intention to go back to the A\oik, but his sister was ill and he wished to be nearer Hamilton. He denied the statement of the constable that he was on hii. way to Auckland when attested. He was leturning to Hamilton. Went to the Ng.unawahia station because ltj was just, as .near, as that at Pukete. In answer to the bench," 1 prisoner said lie lost the letter entiu&ted to him by Mr Coates. He did not tell the foreman that he had received the £1. Mr Not thci oft said it was a fortunate thing for the piisoner that tlieie had been no squaiing up of accounts between the foreman and hnn&elf. Had such been the case prisoner would ha\ c been sent to Mount Eden. As it was the case would be dismissed on payment by prisoner of the amount owing to Mr Coates, £1 15s, and costs £i ss.

Alleged Wife Desertion. August Forkert was charged with leaving his wife without means of support since the 1 middle of May. Seigeant MoGovein said thcie did not seem to him to be any case again&t the accused. Foikett, it appeared, lived for some yeais at Ohaupo, where he had a faun of 100 aoies. .Some time ago he sold oft' Ins stock and 1 omened to Cambiidge, u lieic he obtained work. In May he sent his wife back to the faun to see after some money which li.id not been paid on two corns. She failing to hear fiom him for three weeks, laid the present nifoim.ition. He had made it his business, to go to Ohaupo, and fiom the infoi inntion lie had obtained he was cet tain Forkeit had no intention to briak the liw. .She had tiied to get the money for the cows, but failed, as she had not an older fiom her husband. Jhjfendant explained, in answer to the Bench, that he had boen unable to leturn home on account of the bad weather. The Magistrate said no married man would be saie if all the wives were of the stamp of Mis Forkert. It was quite clear that defendant had no intention of deserting her, but at the same time, as the woman had put the county to some expense, the husband must pay the costs, £1 19s.

A meeting of the creditors of Samuel Bright is called for Saturday, the 10th Tune, to receive trustee's leport and grant certificate oi discharge. Recent investigation into the density of population in Paris, as published in the Globe of that city, develops the fact that theie aio 08,126 house*, wiih a population of 2,209,000 inhabitants, giving an average of 33 persons to each house. It is stated that the gentlem?n who negotiated the sale of Caen Wood Towers, at Highgate, to the ex-Khedive Ismaol, purchased the pmpeity at £40,000 and resold it on the following day to Ismael's agents for £90,000. The Khedive has authorised the return of his brothers, Prinoe Hassan and Prince Hussein, to Egypt. This concession has excited much comment, as his Highness has hitherto persistently refused to" allow any member of the family who has once left Egypt to return to it. A glover's apprentice at Prague, about 18 years of age, hanged himself the other day, and left a letter to his parents stating that he had been selected by a secret society to take the life of one of the chief officeis of the police of the city — Police Director Steipk.al-rftnd that he had committed suicide in order to evade the performance of this task. Thkre is one point about potatoes which is pretty well settled, and that is that the natural life of a variety is from fourteen to twenty years ; hence the importance and necessity of getting new seeding varieties from the most prolific, vigorous, and beet known sorts. After a few years the variety begins to deteriorate, even under the best conditions of season and soil, until it is no longer profitable to grow. Action of poisons on tiie petals or flowers. — A. Anthony Nesbit. F. 0.5., states in the Journal of Science that he has made some experiments on the action of varioiis substances an the life of flowers, an.d for this purpose selected some pf the best known alkaloids, viz., stryohnine, solanine, digitaline, quinidiue, atropiue, quinine, cinchonine, picrotoxine, aconitine, brucine, and morphine, using one-quarter per cent and one per cent solutions. Tho alkaloid of tobacco being very difficult to ph.tasn p urOj owing to its rapid, o^idatian, 5 per cent and 20 pep cent solutions of tobaooo (bird's eye) Were used in jta stead. The flower ohosen for experiment was the narcissus, and the results showed that there was here a wide field for long and patient investigation. Of all the twelve solutions, tobacco proved, in. § vexy marked manner, to be moat ejasfrqetiye to the life of the flower !of the narcissus ; the remaining eleven poisons, though but slowly injurious, marked nevertheless in some instances showed diffeience of effect, or, it may be said, symptom. Thus strychnine, next in poisonous power to tobacco, drew the petals upward, and made them dry and brittle, symptoms also exhibited by solanine poisoning, while quinidine and several other alkaloids rendered the petals limp and rotten. Morphine, one of the least poisonous (to the narcissus) of the alkaloids experimented with, without -destroying the flower,, curiously enough, imparted to the ; petals a »flaccidity resembling tb*t of th? j^tajsof the