SUPREME COURT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8943, 31 May 1907, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

«? — CHRISTCHURCH. Friday, Mat 31. - (Before his Honor Mr Just-ice Chapman. FORGERY. Oscar Robert Blair, who had pleaded guilty in the lower Courts at Timaru, and Chri&tohuToh to three charges of forgery, was called up for sentence. Accused had nothing to say. Mr Stringer said the prisoner had only been in the colony a short timo. He was a.irian of fair education, and intelligence, and had probably given, way to drink. There was no reason to suppose that in his own home he ever behaved in anything but a proper way. His Honor said that he could not treat tifoe prisoner as a first offender, because the three acts for which he was arraigned indicated an intention systematically to defraud persons by meane of the false instruments. The probation officar's report was unsatisfactory, and the 'circumstances were not suoh as to justify him in admitting to probation. He would, give him a chance to recover his position later by inflicting/only ia very etmall sentence. Ho wo Ald be imprisoned for six months with hard labour upon each charge, tike sentences to ba conoumnent. HUSBAND AND WIFE. In the case Richards v. Richards, a suit for the restitution of conjugal rights, Mr Graiham appeared for the petitioner and Mr Stringer/ for tihe ieRpomd&nt. Mr Graham said that the parties were married in 1900. ' The husband brought to the wife a family of eight, and she had <a family of six, and it was not surprising that there was quarrelling between the families. This arose chiefly iii connection with one of the eons, whose occasional difficulties cost the petitoner a good deal of money. The bickerings were such as one would expeot under the circumstances. There was no cruelty whatever, and the only oharge that could be levelled was the use of insulting language. Mr Stringer said that he had, on instructions, entered an appearance and filed a defence. But he was satisfied that, although the respondent was very meanly and shabbily treated, and made to work more like a slave than a wife, and subjected to very abusive language, the treatment did not amount to misconduct such as would entitle the Court to refuse a decree for the restitution of conjugal rights. He would therefore not subject the Court to the washing of dirty linen. The wife appeared, however, to have absolutely decided not Lo return to her husband, and Mr Stringer said that the position was likely to be intolerable. . . There was an agreement, which, nis Honor permitted to stand, regarding the maintenance by the petitioner of a child of the marriage. Simon Richards, the petitioner, told the Court when his wife left him. She had refused to return to him, and prior to her leaving she had refused him conjugal rights. .John Taylor stated that he had taken a letter to the respondent for petitioner, asking her to return. She told him she would not return on any consideration, because her husband kept her ver^ short of money. His Honor 6aid further evidejjpe was unnecessary, and made an order to the effect that the respondent must return to cohabitation with her husband within fourteen days of the service of the order. CHAMBER SITTING His Honor sat in Chambers this morning, and disposed of the cases set down for hearing. ; [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, May 31. John Solomon Taylor pleaded not : guilty to a charge of causing the death of a horse by poison, at Frankton. The jury disagreed, and a new trial was or- ; <i«re<i for next week. John Thomas Bennett, aged fifty- j five, who pleaded guilty to false pretences, was sentenced to three | years' imprisonment, and was declared an habitual criminal. The prisoner's re- ; cord, commencing with a conviction for ! larceny in 1866, included eighteen convictions, involving twenty-four years' imprisonment. The civil list at the Supreme Court t inoludes claims against the Auckland Harbour Board, totalling £21,788, aris- , ing out of the accident to the steamer , Mamari ia the Calliope Dock. The Shaw, Saville Company claims £15,000, ; the balance chiefly of claims for injury sustained by workmen. ' J WELLINGTON, May 81. , Mr Justice Button yesterday granted a decree nisi, on the application, of ; Elizabeth Vine, for a dissolution of her marriage with George Vine, now of ': Gisborne, on the grounds of the respon? dent's drunkenness and failure to pro? , vide far her support;. Ike parting were married at Ghiistchurch. on March 20, 1880. '