SUPREME COURT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 42, 18 August 1908, Page 8

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

TO-DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. His Honour Mr. Justice Cooper opened tho second day of the criminal sessions at the Supreme. Court this morning. DISCHARGED. Patrick Ryan, against whom the Grand Jury had found no bill on a ■ 'lcbarge of indecent assault at Welling- j was discharged. THEFT OF A BOOKMAKER'S j TICKET. James Chalker, a young man, pleaded: not guilty to stealing a bookmaker's ticket, value £12, from the person of one Edward James Hughes, at Pahiattfa, on. the sth August. • „ ; Mr. Myers, for the -Crown,, started that the alleged offence took place on the ' Pahiatua racecourse on the sth. August,at tho Hunt Club Races. A man named ■ Edward James Hughes bad invested the. sum of £4 at, 2 -to 1, with a bookmaker — one West — on the horse Waitoa. He received the ticket; Waitoa won. The accused was. in the vicinity and, after the race had been run and Waitoa- -won,, he snatched the ticket away and made >off. He -was caught by Mr. Hughes and .given in charge. The ticket was. not found. ' The prisoner defended himself with--oat the aid of counsel. Edward James Hughes, commission .agent, Pahiatua, deposed that he invest-, ed the sum of £4 with F. West, a liesensed, bookmaker, on Waitoa, for the Kumeroa Steeplechase. The dividend was three pounds. Waitoa won, and* the ■witness was going to collect the diyi--dend when the accused snatched the tic- ' 'lcet out of his hand. The accused had been standing by when witness was showing-the ticket to some friends. The accused had asked him to go a halfticket with him. The half sovereign -was not forthcoming, and the ticket wasinab purchased. Chalker cleared out,, and ■the 1 witness gave chase, caught him, and 1 handed him-ower'to the police. To bis Hononr : He had never seen the £12 ticket since. Cecil Joseph Swan, farmer, said he was present on the Pahiatua racecourse' on the sth August. He had noticed a man named West on the- course, and also Mr. Hughes. The latter had a bookmaker's ticket. He saw the accused snatch the ticket from the hand of Mr. ' Hughes. The accused ran away, followed by Mr. Hughes. To the accused : Witness did not get paid, as be had been knocked over and ' his ticket trampled in the mud. The accused : A lot of you seemed, to be in the mud that day. \ John Brannigan, contractor, Pabiaalso deposed to seeing the ticket snatched out. of Mr. Hughes' hand by t\the -accused. f Detective Lewis said he was on duty tat the Pahiatua racecourse on the sth .August. About 5 p.m. witness saw the accused running through the saddling I paddock with Mr. Hughes behind him !! italling*out "Stop him." Witness caught i Chalker by the arm. Mr. Hughes ,i>pad '"He has stolen my ticket." Ac-, -a used denied this. and gave/the detective tite name of Jack Williams. Witness «.t* cted him further, but the accused per'sis\ted in his denial. He said therewn\s a general snatch for ticket* on that l<rai"p. Accused, in the Pahiatua lockup *„said he had the ticket in his hand foi ' a second, when it was snatched a.vn ay. Mr. Hughes had said he noticed tho accused pass the ticket to another rraii). A crowd had certainly followed! the bookmaker off the course. T"\his concluded the case 'for the prose-, cutk m. Tiie accused elected not to give-evi-denet:), but addressed the jury. The tickfli^, he declared, was valueless, and' he has d known that from the start. The ticket i had been dishonoured. He> could 'have.j'.jot away- easily from- a man of Mr. Hughuss's age. His, Honour declared that the case stood i on the evidence of the three eyewitaea ses, who -saw the ticket snatched. Agains t that was merely the statement of tha prisoner. Whether the ticket was vA 'ueless or not, it belonged to Hughes . The taking of 'the ticket constitu ted larceny or theft. Tiere was an admi Vssion that Jbhe prisoner 'had tho ticket in 1 - his possession for a period o? time. After half-an-hour.'s retirement the. jury brought in a verdict of guiltyagainst tibte prisoner, who was remanded until to-morrow morning for sentence. ALLEGED THEFT FROM SHIP'S CARGO. William. Gunn M'Kay, a wharflabourer, ;was charged with the theft of certain awtacles of clothes on the 6th April from the steamer Blenheim. The goods were the property- of Messrs. Ross and Gtenditning. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Mr. WiHJDrd appealed on his behalf. Mr. Myers described the -case as of ex.treme importance. The accused was a ,' wharf-labourer, and he was charged" with ! having stolen certain articles of cargo 'from the sbnp, on which he had been working. It was a matter of common knowledge- $%iat throughout New Zealand -complaints with regard to the pillage of jgoods on board ships were continually beuig received. These .pillages were hard to detect, but it was very important tjhat they should be detected. Where a casse was proved, there should be no hesitation on the part of tbe jury in. convicting-,. It was important for the «ake of those persons -working on ships '■where such fhefts were committed, that* <*the .off ences should be-detected, as mother ~ •wise they Tfeffld open everybody on board', .to a charge <of -dishonesty. Mr. Myecs then briefly outlined the' ,'case. EmmanueEDimani, commercial travelUer for ' Boss and Glendming, that, ion the 4th April he was in Martin--borongh on"'bnsiiiess Tvith* a quantity of samples. On leading Martinborough, the- witness^.ccHisigned the- .goods in ham--■pers to Bleafaeim. 'When he arrfved in BLen-heim, he foxmd that ibe hampers, had been openaed, and certain urtaoles of underclothing were, missing. The articles, ■.produced were like the missing goods. F All were tra^eßer'si^amples, and no->twp--arficles were, alike. Some of the g/aodsi were not- even stocked in the Wellington 'warehouse. Cross-eiamined t>y Mr. iWilford, witstated that articles -flimilar to those, ■produced might have "been sold to retailers. There was no distinguishing mark on the articles. He could not ..swear that the articles produced were .identically the articles lost. Re-examined : A certain article pro-> duced was never sold, but simply "kept as a-sampl© for orders for special manufacture. James Mayer, manager at Wellington^ for the mill department of Messrs. Ross. ,and Glendining, stated that samples.similar to the ones produced had been, issued about the beginning of the year. Twenty articles of women's underclothing not for sale had been issued. Nineteen had been accounted for, but one car-, ried by Mr. Dimant, was missing. James M'Carthy, carter, deposed to, carting certain hampers from the Gov, eminent station to the steamship Blenheim. They had come from Mantinbor~ ough, and were placed on the ship in .good condition. Detective Connolly stated that on the, '4th June, in company with the accused and Detective Broberg, ho went to the accused's house at Brooklyn and carried out.a search. A lajgo n.umbea^.oj.jjth.e^

articles, apart from 'those produced, were found/ Witness spoke to M'Kay about the complaints of thieving from ship's cargo, and asked him how he had got all tho goods in his house. M'Kay replied that he had bought them at shops and auction rooms. A new. suit he was wearing had been brought from Sydney. The detective was further informed that M 'Kay's wife had died four or fiv© years ago. When asked about two bottles of brandy alleged to have been stolen from the Putiki, the prisoner saidut had been a bit of bad luck for him. George Wilkinson, chief officer of the steamship Blenheim, remembered receiving, on 6th April, 12 hampers and 2 packages to go to Mi. Dimant, at Blenheim. The packages in good condition had been stowed in the forehold of the steamer, where the.accused was working. Alexander Pert, second officer of the steamship Putiki, gave-evidence with regard to the breaking open of a case of brandy, from which twcbottles had been missed. M'Kay -had been -working in the afterhold, where the brandy was being stowed. M'Kay later, omthe wharf, admitted taking a bottle of brandy out- of the hold. He-offered .to put it back, but did not do so. Witness found two bottles missing from a case on his return , aboard. William Edward [Wahlstrom, chief officer of the Putiki, gave similar evidence. This ' Concluded the case for the-prose-cution. Counsel for the defences called no evidence^ but addressed the jury.. His Honour, in .summing up, alluded .to the frequency of complaints about cargo pillaging. A VERDICT OF GUILTY. After an hour's retirement the jury' returned a verdict-of guilty. The prisoner was remanded for sen- • tence ■• until to-morrow. (Left sitting.) SCHOOL TEACHER ,SENT~TO GAOL." fBY TELEGBAPH. — FBESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, This Day. At the criminal sittings of the-Supreme Court Frank George Melhop pleaded guilty on four charges of indecently asvaulting pupils at the Mornington School, .and was sentenced to two years' im-« v prisonment with hard labour.