HORSE WITHOUT WATER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 65, 17 March 1928, Page 10

HORSE WITHOUT WATER.

FAILURE OF PROSECUTION.

MORRINSVILLE, this day.

Because the prosecution failed to establish the fact that the defendant had a "gruilty mind" a charge of cruelty to a horse preferred against a Walton farmer, Ernest Paton, was dismissed by Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., in the Morrinsville Police Court.

The police alleged that the horse had been running for a considerable time during the dry spell on a 10-acre paddock at Walton and had not been given a drop of water by its owner. When a constable visited the paddock he found the animal half-crazy with thirst, and although a thorough search was made of the paddock, no sign of any water rould be found. The defendant, who was residing in Mamaku, was communicated with, but he apparently did not even then attend to the horse, as further complaints were made a week later. It was quite impossible to apprbech the horse, which had since been destroyed. Paton said he had hurried to Walton as soon as he received the constable's letter, and had offered the horse water but it did not drink. The animal ap-' peared to have injured itself on the wire fence, which made it difficult to approach, and after examining the wound he gave the horse away to be destroyed. He had visited the horse a number <rf times, the last occasion being on January 7, when there was a plentiful supply of waiter available from an adjacent swamp. The magistrate, in dismissing the charge, said he could not convict on the evidence. The police had failed to estalish the fact that Paton had a guiltv mind, which was necessary for the success of such a charge.