A TRIVIAL CHARGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 148, 24 June 1889, Page 2

A TRIVIAL CHARGE.

At the Police Court to-day, before Messrs Crowther and Dinnison, Justices, George Henry Miller, alias Henry Jones, wascharged with having stolen from the cutter Petrel one flannel shirt, value Is, the property of John Henry Copeland.

Prisoner pleaded not guiliy, but admitted that having got his own shirt; wet on the he had used the one belonging to the complainant, who had been on the cutter the previous voyage.

Constable Cotter deposed to arresting the defendant on the boat. He had the shirt on at the time, and he at once took ib off and continued his work without any shirt.

Mr Niccol, proprietor of the cutter, deposed that he dismissed Copeland from the boat before the last trip, but the man had left his things on board. The defendant was wet, and as Copeland was not on board the man put on hia shirt while hie own dried. He believed that it was purely a spite case. The Bench decided to dismiss the case, and remarked that under similar circumstances it was probable that they too would have takgn $c loan of a spare shirt.