SUPREME COURT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 112, 13 May 1915, Page 8

SUPREME COURT

CRIMINAL SESSIONS WHITE HORSE HOTEL FIRE BALCH ACQUITTED. After The Post went to press yesterday the trial was concluded of Walter Balch, charged with arson in connection with the destruction by fire of the White Horse Hotel, Ngahauranga. The jury retired at 3.40 p.m. and returned at 4.5 p.m. with a verdict of not guilty. Prisoner, who was defended by Mr. H. F. O'Leary, was discharged. Thomas Dagnall was placed upon his trial before his Honour the Chief Justice and a jury of twelve on a charge of indecently assaulting a girl three years of age. Mr. V. R. Meredith was Crown Prosecutor and the prisoner was defended by Mr. H. F. Yon Haast. The Court was cleared during the hearing. The case was not concluded when the Court adjourned until this morning. The trial was resumed this morning. The jury retired at 12.30 p.m. The jury returned at 2.25 p.m. with a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner was discharged. NATIVE LAND MONEYS. * ALLEGED mSHONESTY. Charges of dishonest dealing were preferred against Ernest Alfred Welch and James Gibson 'Bryant. The specific charges related' to the drawing and presentation of a cheque for £790. Welch and Bryant were charged (1) with theft on 12th February, 1915, of the chepjue, the property of the New Zealand Government; (2) with attempted theft. Bryant was also charged with receiving the cheque knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Mr. V. R. Meredith was the Crown Prosecutor; Mr. T. M. Wilford appeared for Welch and Mr. P. W. Jackson for Bryant. Both prisoners pleaded not guilty. Mr. J. Campbell was foreman of the jury. Mr. Wilford said that the prisoners would admit that Welch wrote the cheque and Bryant tendered it at the bank. Mr. Meredith, opening the case for the Crown, said that Welch had formerly been Registrar of the Native Land Court for the South Island. As such he had power to operate on the law trust account, applying the funds for the benefit of the Natives interested in the trust. The cheque for £790 was drawn not on a form out of accused's own book but on one 'out of the book of the Registrar of the Akaroa Nativo District. Bryant presented it at the Bank of New Zealand, and the teller, having his suspicions, sent for Detective Cameron. When questioned as to his name, Bryant said that he was T. A. Burns, tradesman, of Tinakori-road. Later he said that he picked up the cheque in Moles-worth-street. Again, he said that he worked in a Government office, and he denied that Welch gave him the cheque. (Proceeding.)