WIRE ROPE CASES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 126, 28 May 1919, Page 5

WIRE ROPE CASES.

; FINAL CHARGES ABANDONED. SEVEN ACQUITTALS IN ALL. The series of charges of theft arising out of the sale of wire rope by men employed on the waterfront came to a close yesterday afternoon at the Supreme Court. John Barens (Mr. Meredith), a foreman stevedore employed by the New Zealand Shipping Co., who had been acquitted of one charge of stealing one coil of wire rope, which admittedly he had sold, was brought up on two other charges, which included alternative counts of receiving wire rope, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained,! and of obtaining sums of £13 12/ and £19 on October 13 and January 23 - last respectively by- false pretences from Long, Ormiston and Co., machinery brokers. When a jury [iad been empanelled, Hon. J. A. Tole, K.C., stated that he had considered the two remaining charges, and in view c/ the fact that practically the whole of the jury panel had sat in one or another of the preceding cases he could not hope for a different verdict than those that had already been given. He would therefore offer no evidence. Mr. Justice Stringer remarked that the course adopted by the Crown was the right one. The facts in the two remaining cases were almost precisely the same as in those which had gone before. In every previous case a verdict of not guilty had been returned, and it was hardly right to expect the jury to reach a different decision now. His Honor directed the jury to bring in a verdict of not guilty, which was . done, and the accused was discharged. [