SUPREME COURT—CRIMINAL SITTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1304, 13 April 1874, Page 2

SUPREME COURT—CRIMINAL SITTINGS.

This Day. (Before His Honor Sir George A. Amey, Knight, Chief Justice.) His Honor took his seat at ten o'clock. UTTERING WITH INTEKT. Hugh McCormack, a young man, aged 21, ■was arraigned upon an indictment charging him with uttering a medal in the form and color of a sovereign at the Auckland Hotel on the 21st February last with intent to defraud Colin Mclntosh. Prisoner pleaded not guilty. Mr. Brookfield opened the case on the part of the Crown, and Mr. Hesketh defended the prisoner. Colin Mclntosh, a bairnan, deposed that on the night of Saturday, February 21st, the prisoner came into the High-street bar of the Auckland Hotel; it was near eleven o'clock, and he remained there about twenty minutes. Prisoner called for something to drink. He thought as far as he could recollect that he called for a glass of ale, for which he tendered a coin which witness accepted as a sovereign, it being of the form, and color thereof. He gave prisoner as "change sev en half-crowns and a florin. Mr. Boulter collected the cash a little after eleven o'clock in his absence, and discovered the medal which I had received of prisoner as a sovereign. The coin produced is the one referred to, stamped on one side with the words "Victoria Reginae," and on the other with the figure of a man on horseback and the words "To Hanover," date 1837. He should not possibly have received the coin without detection from a stranger, but witness and prisoner were intimate friends accustomed to take their drops together. _ Cross-examined by Mr Hesketh : He had known the prisoner nearly two years, and never had any reason to suspect that he was other than a respectable young man. He was not in the habit of drinking to excess. He did not know until the following Sunday that he had taken a medal for a sovereign, nor Should he have known that he had done so had Mr Boulter not drawn his attention Clara Boulter, daughter of the landlord of the Auckland Hotel, deposed that she remembered Mclntosh leaving the bar on the niffu* in question, when she went to mind it, bift\in f-'stomers came in; the house was Xir Bha tt' fl not Put any coin under the gksswhere^ -ual to place the gold for did any other P«gf m'?S^Ssffi£> Joseph Boulter, father o. , + laf n!fl deposed that when his dang*™' ,f ia f JJ® counterfeit beside him on the nlgJ™ ,?i T~ 21st he noticed at once that it was fieW™ 118----and rolled it up in a piece of paper. Michael Lynch was next examined, anu deposed that he was proprietor of the Clanricarde Hotel, Albert-street, and that on Monday, the 23rd of February, prisoner called at his house, asked for a nobbier of brandy, and tendered a medal as a sovereign in payment for the same. Witness immediately noticed the supposed coin, and asked prisoner where he got it from, when he replied that he got it in chauge on T;he previous Saturday night. He then pulled out some silver, when witness saw another of the coins among the silver. Witness obtained the two from him, and handed them to Detective Ternahan. Before he gave information to the police prisoner offered witness a pound to hush up the matter, and say nothing about it. Prisoner was not drunk, but appeared as if he had been drinking. Lizzie McKearney, jgmaid of all work, deposed that in February last she was in the service of Mr. Morris Marks in Hobsonstreet, and that on Sunday, the 16th February, she gave to prisoner three coins, which she received with others from Montagu Maxks. Witness and prisoner ware on very intimate terms ; she had known him over three' years ; she did not remember telling him not to pass them, but she told him they were not sovereigns. William Spain, assayer of the Sank of New Zealand, deposed that at the request of Detective Ternahan he tested the coins with acid, and found them composed of base metal, principally copper. Robert Ternahan then gave evidence as to apprehending the prisoner on the charge of uttering base coin, jwhen prisoner replied that he was drunk, "or he should not have done it. He took him to the station and searched his pockets. This being the cace for the prosecution, Messrs. Steele, Waddsll, andßurton(bakers), appeared to testify in favour of prisoner's character, also Mr Caleb Woad, butcher. Mr. Hosketh then addressed the jury, and made a very forcible defence for the prisoner. His Honor then summed up the evidence before the Courts with his usual care, and referred to the respectability of the gentlemen who had spoken to the young man's previous good character. The jury then retired to consider their verdict, and found him guilty of uttering but not with intent to defraud. His Honor to the Foreman : You mean, Not guilty ? '. • Yes, your Honor. The prisoner was then discharged, and the Court adjourned until ten o'clock to-morrow morning.