FINDING A PURSE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 254, 24 October 1905, Page 3

FINDING A PURSE.

AN UNSUCCESSFUL DEFENCE.

In the Police Court yesterday, before Mr C. C. Kettle, S.M., a young man named Norman Henry Allison, defended by Mr Hackett, pleaded not guilty to a charge of stealing a purse and 13/ in money, the property of William Gordon Kelly. 0 Chief-Detective Marsack prosecuted, and called Kelly, a mining engineer, who stated that he lived at Mrs Basten's boardinghouse in Summer-street, where the accused al ; o boarded. On; the night of October 13th, when he went to bed, he hung his waistcoat hehind his bedroom door. In one of the pockets he left a purse containing 10/ in gold and a few shillings in silver. Two days later, when he went to get the money from the waistcoat, he missed the purse and its contents. When the landlady was informed of his loss she telephoned for the police, and when Detective Shine arrived Allison told the witness that he found the purse outside his (Kelly's) room. The accused ?aid he only found 10/ in it, and added that he could give him back the purse and the money. He could not find it in his coat pocket, and subsequently the purse was found under a mat in the sittingroom. In reply to Mr Hackett, the witness said that when he received the purse and money he would have been satisfied to let the matter drop. Detective Shine stated that when he found the purse under a mat it contained a postal note for 2/6, which did not belong to Kelly. Mr Hackett stated that Allison found the purse, as he told the police, and did not 'immediately return it. This action was no doubt open to grave suspicion or even of guilt, but he submitted that Allison's action was really not inconsistent with his declared innocence. The accused then repeated on * oath his original statement to the police. . ' His Worship decided to convict the aecursA, remarking that he convicted upon'an inference from the facts. He sentenced Allison to a month's KarxTlabour.