SUPREME COURT.

Press, Volume XXI, Issue 2400, 15 April 1873, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SITTINGS

Monday, April v, 1873. [Before H ; s Houor Mr Justice Gi'esson.l The Court re-opened at 1 1 a.m. setting fire to stacks. Frederick Berg was" indicted for havin<- on March 2nd unlawfully set fire to seven stacks of wheat, the property of James Rosser. I Mr Duncan prosecuted on behalf of the j' Crown, and the prisoner was defended by Mr Wynn Williams. The case was heard before a jury composed half of aliens, and MrLudwig Berg chosen as foreman. Mr Duncan having stated the case for the Crown, called the following evidence : George Fredk. Ritso—l am Government surveyor. I was employed lately makinc a survey of the ground round Mr Rosser's farm on Kaiapoi Island. I did so; the various points indicated on the plan were pointed out to mc by Mr Pender and Mr Rosser. Sergt. Pratt was also present. I produce the plans marked A, which show Mr Rosser's farm and the main • road. It is on a scale of ten* feet to the inch. The witness described the plan. I produce the plan marked B, which shows the environs of the fie. [This plan was also described by the witness.] James Rosser—l am a farmer on Kaiapoi Island. My house fronts on the North ropd, about three-quai'.'ers of 'a mile from White's bridge. I have there ? farm of 124 acres. On the 2nd March my crops were collected • there were seven stacks of wheat on the ground, six of them were mine ; one stack belonged to Mr James Peel. There were also four slacks of oats. There were two rows of wheat slacks, three in the first row, and four "n the second. The distance between the stacks was between lift and 12ft. Tbe wheat stacks were about two chains from the house. There was a shed partly built, near the wheat stacks. I was present when tbe surveyor came .up and took a savvey of the placet The stacks were all right ai eight o'clock on Saturday night, tbe 2nd March. I then, went to bed. I fell ■•sleep, and was awoke -at five minutes past 1 welve when my wife came to bed. She went to bed about twenty minutes past twelve, previously blowing out the candle. The room was then thoroughly dark. In less than a minute I saw the reflection of a light from outside, and heard a crackling noise. I-asked my wife if she had left anything burning in the kitchen, and she said "no." I jumped out of bed, put on my trousers, ran to the front door, and saw my wheat stacks on fire. I saw the prisoner" Be:-g at the back of the shed. I ran from the house to the- stacks. The situation is marked on the map. I said- " Berg, is that you?" He -Jsaid " Hallo 1 afire." I asked him which way he came, and he told mc through the flax. J asked him if he had seen any one, and he told me'" no." I asked him where he was when the traps which I had heard passed. He said he was at Wright's gate when the traps passed. It was about 2. quarter of a mile from the Waimakariri bridge. I said nothing more at the time. He was three or four yards behind the shed, and eight or nine from the nearest stack, standing looking at the fire. All the seven stacks were on fire when I fir6t saw them, but No. 1 showed more flame than the others, and that was the one nearest to the prisoner. The outside, of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 was on Are, and the inside of 4, 5, 6, and 7 The fire was a little way from, the bottom of the stack's up to tbe eaves. No. 7 was very little burnt. Berg lives near to my house. When I first saw him He was between his house and the stacks looking. at the fire ; he gave no alarm at all. He was fully dressed except his coat. He had his hat on to the best of my belief. He had his boots on, but Ican't say whether they were tied/There were three men sleeping in my house that night, Frederick Lambert, Robert Adams, and Henry Lee. They got up and came out. The prisoner said -he saw the fire when he was on the second bridge from . his house, which would also be the second from White's bridge. Prisoner said, when he saw the fire first, he went home, took off his coat and came through the flax to the fire. From my knowledge of the localities it was impossible for him to do it in the time. All the wheat stacks were destroyed. I considered their value to be between £300 and £400.. They were not insured. Next morning _ saw footmarks on the road. We traced them from- Berg's , house, alqng the North road, through my'entrance gate, up to ;the bedroom window. We also traced them up to one of the hay stacks. I sent the young man named Lee for Berg's boots. He brought one of them, and we compared it with the tracks, and made an impression alongside of them., It was the left boot, the one produced, and it fitted the marks exactly. The cross made by the nails atthe top of tbe boot and the rows of nails corresponded exactly with the tracks. 1 met the. prisoner the following Monday morning nearly at the top of the Islaud. I said, " Good morning, Berg." He said, " I asked Fred if he told you he saw mc on the flax land. I said, " What did he say;" and Berg said that Fred said it was a lie. I said, " Don't tell mc that, Berg, it was you and only you that set fira to my stacks." He said, "If I did, you drove mc to it," I asked hftn what he meant, and he said " You wouldn't care who sunk ih the earth as long as you could walk upon it." He also said I had been trying to put him out of his house. I told him I should if he didn't pay his rent —he was my tenant- r -but if he paid his rent no one could put him out. He was in arrears of three quarters' rent, £24. I had put it into Messrs Dudley and Craig's hands to collect. The prisoner knew that steps were being taken for the recovery of tbe money. I had no further conversation with, him about the fire. My bedroom, when the light was extinguished, fronts the little gate where we traced the steps to. If the prisoner had gone through the large gate to where I found him standing behind the shed, he would have had to have gone through the slip-rails, or over a post and rail fence.

Cross-examined by Mr Williams—There was a post between Berg and mc when I first saw him. It was a calm night, with a little easterly wind. 1 caw him leave about four o'clock in the morning. No one went with him. To the best of my knowledge he went through the flax in the direction of his house. I traced the footsteps no further than the windo%v. While the stacks were burning prisoner and those present were talking, but I took very little part in the conversation. There were Sir Field and Sergeant Pratt. Lambert, Lee, Adams, and my wife present, I swear I said nothing

about a man Baylis. Berg asked mc if I had J sent the police to Baylis,,and I said •• No ; | when I send the poll.--- it w7' he for the right man." i m» • ur> ) reply to mc. but left .«■.' •;> .1 .*><.■.> ... : I am not sure that I could haw Vvird a!i .-he. i conversation that took place. I did not h»:»r jmy wife say that I had boon warned th.vt ! Biiylis would do mc an injury. I never received any warning to that oiTVct. but I , cannot say whether my wife h:id or not. j Since the fire, since Berg has h>v>i in prison. : T have obtained possession of hi* h'i;;s.> by j taking off the roof. I have taken nothing -•/longing to him. I hear.l ;!■■■ nups pass about ten minutes after my .vife .\i>no into the bedroom, and about two minutes before I saw the fire. I did not tell any one that I heard one of the traps stop and that some one must hare got down, lit the fire, and then goue on again. I nevr heard the traps stop. I told Sergeaut Pratt I knew no man that had a spite against mo fexcept Baylis ; that was after 1 had gone to Kaiapoi to thc x police. It was about an hour after the fire that I went to Sergeant Pratt about one o'clock a.m. I suspected Berg at the time but did uot mention him to Sergeant.Pratt. I was very much confused. I told Sergeant Pratt that Berg was there, but nothing about my suspicions of him. The next morning I told Sergeant Pratt that. I suspected Berg. I was perfectly satisfied in my own mind that Berg fired the stacks, but it was owing to the confusion I was in that I did not mention him to Sergeant Pratt. Elizabeth Rosser, wife of the last witness, was called and gave corroborative evidence. Frederick Lambert—l was staying at Rosser's house in March last. I am a laborer. On tbe night of the fire I went to bed about ten o'clock. I slept in the same room with Lee. I was awoke between twelve and one o'clock, aroused by Mr Rosser. When I woke I ran out of the door, and saw six wheat stacks on fire. I went back to finish dressing, aud returned to the fire. I should think the stacks had been burning for two or three minutes. Each stack was on fire separately, just blazing up. I saw the prisoner Berg there, he was standing at the back of the stacks inside the fence, four or five yards from the shed. He was on the same sido of the fence as the stacks. He was coming down towards the oat stacks. Rosser was between the wheat and the oat stacks talking to Berg. Mrs Rosser was there too. I know Berg's house and the second bridge. I don't think he could have come from the second bridge to the fie in the time from its commencement. I saw Berg afterwards that day and he asked mc what the Sergeant of Police thought about the fire. I told him he had a supjeion as to the man who had done it. Berg said her wished he hadn't been there, that was all the conversation we had. I saw no one at the fire but Berg, with the exception of the then inmates of the house. I was up first and the other men followed mc out quickly. They were in bed when the alarm was given. The witness was cross-examined by Mr Williams, and he stated that at the fire either Mr or Mrs Rosser had said that BayTis had threatened to do it at one time. He could not say which of them it was. One of them said, " 1 wonder if it was Baylis that had done it." I remember Rosser saying a trap had gone to and fro. Berg assisted mc in throwing water over the burning stacks. Henry Lee—l was living in Mr Rosser's house ou the Ist March last. Ou the 2nd, Mr Rosser discovered some footprints on the road. I know the prisoner Berg, and from instructions I went to his house and got a boot frpm a girl in the house. Berg was there, and spoke to mc, aud told the girl to give mc the boot. I received a left boot. The one produced is the same. I took It to Rosser's, and. he compared it with the foot- ■ prints on the road. I was present when he did it, and he fitted the boot to the footprint, and they agreed. The footprint was between the big gate and the house. Cross-examined by Mr Williams—l was at the fire in company with the other inmates of Mr Rosser's house ; Berg was there, also Adam's and . Rosser's little girl. I don't know what they were talking about, except the fire generally. I saw Lambert there. I have not spoken about the fire., to Mr Rosser since it occurred. I remember Mr Rosser mentioning th'e name of Baylis,'• But don't know what else he said. I waff just going through the doorway of the 'house when I heard the name of Baylis mentioned. Mr and Mrs Rosser were then in the house. James < Field—l am a farmer at Kaiapoi Island. I reside nearly opposite Rosser's farm. I was called by Bosser early in the morning of the 2nd of last March. I went oyer with him and saw the wheat stacks on fire. I saw the prisoner and others there. * After daylight I searched with Rosser and two boys, and found some tracks, inside the large gate leading on to the road. They were footprints. We traced them inside and out of the gate, and Rosser sent for one of Berg's boots and compared it with tbe tracks. The boot produced is the same. The prints agreed exactly with the boots c The footprints appeared as if in the~ direction of Berg's house. Later in the day I saw a track very muck like it opposite the small gate on the North road leading to Rosser's house. This was about twelve o'clock in the day. iWe made the first search' some hours'before that, between five aud six o'clock. There was only one mark near the small gate, and it had been covered to prevent it from being obliterated. There were other tracks within the gateway besides. • . ' ? By his Honor—ln the first examination all, the tracks we tried corresponded with the boot. We noticed the crosses on the sole of the boot corresponded particularly. Rosserin conversation first said that he thought Baylis had lighted the fire, that was within-a quarter of an hour after the fire broke out. Berg was present but .made no remark. Mrs Rosser seemed to agree with Mr Rosser. .1 likewise heard Rice's name mentioned. I think both by Mr and Mrs Rosser. 1 can't remember the exact words made use of. I couldn't tell whether the footprints were made by a man with a boot on, or whether made in the same manner as when the boot was compared with the tracks. Mrs Rosser said'first she thought a trap had stopped, but nothing about any one getting ..out. I heard Mrs Rosser say they had been told to look out,'for a neighbor had told her their stacks were going to be burnt; they had better get them insured. . " Francis Burrows—l ana a laborer, residing at Mr -Field's, Kaiapoi Island. I was at his house the Monday after Rosser's stacks had been burned. I had a conversation about the fire. Berg said, " What if I was a long time ou the load. I was alone. I defy them to find mc out. I suppose they'll soon be coining for mc." I understood by that th it he meant the police. Cross-examined by Mr Williams—.On the Sunday after the fire I was there. I was not there when they measured the footmarks with the -boot. George Graham—Last January I was working at a machine on Kaiapoi Island. I remember Saturday, the Ist of March. I was working a machine at O'Oallagban's on the Island, about four or five miles- from Berg's. Berg was working that day, and left off about eight o'clock. At nine o'clock j Berg left my place to go home. It would I take him about an hour and a quarter to get home at a walking pace.

John Pratt—l am. a sergeant of police stationed at Kaiapoi. About one o'clock on the 2nd of March last Rosser came to the police station. I accompanied him to his farm on Kaiapoi Island, and saw all his wheat stacks on fire. 1 had a conversation with Bersr, who was there. I asked him if he could point out to mc where he was when be first saw the lire. He said he was at the second bridge on the North road from his house. He was coming home from work at Mr O'Callagban's, on the Island, but directly he saw the tire he raa to his own house, took off his coat, ran out on the road again, went along the road and entered hosser's premises by the large gateway. "Cross-examined by Mr Williams—When Rosser came to the police station first he saw mc. On tbe road back to his place he said he suspected a man named Baylis of having set his stacks on fire. He mentioned hia suspicion of Baylis in Janswer to a question from mc.

William O'Connor—T am sergeant of police j stationed at t.'hristchurdi. I arreted the prisoner on Tuesday, the 4th March, about a quarter to S\.ur p.m. on a charge of setting j fire to a quantity of grain, tho properly of jMr lu-ws-r. of Kaianoi Island. I arrested | him iv ('iiristohim-ln'near the Oxford Hotel. I told him the charge, and cautioned him. He made no reply, an.l 1 took him towards the police-station. He said on the road, "Are yon a s-.rg-ant of police?" I said '•Yes." Further m\ he made an attemnt to run away, nnd I told him if !v* attempted to do it again I would handci;! him. 1 kepthold of him by the arm until we reached the police-station. lie was very nervous, and trembled a great deal. This was the case for the Crown ; and for the defence Mr Williams called the following witnesses : — Martha Rosser —I remember the night the stacks were burnt at my father's place. I heard some traps go by the house about the time my mother went ta bed. I heard a conversation after the fire when my father, mother, Lambert, and othprs were present. Berg was there too. I don't remember hearin? any one saying anythiug about the traps going by. I said nothing about them myself. I did'nt hear the traps stop. I don't remember my father or mother or any one else.mention the name of Baylis. I was not | out' so soon as the rest. I did not say in Berg's hearing that I heard a trap go by, but I heard it go by when Pwas in bed. Robert Adams —I am a laborer working nt present at Mr Rosser's. 1 was there at Uptime of the fire. I was aroused by Mr Rosser singing out that his Blacks were on fire. It was a stillish night, but the wind was blowing from the cast. It is about sixteen chains from Berg's house j to Rosser's house. I got up aud ran outside, when Mr Rosser gave the alarm. I saw all the wheat stacks on fire. I am not quite sure of the seventh, but I know there were six on fire. I saw Rosser speaking to" Berg. Berg was at the.back of the shed, and Rosser was between the latter aud the house. In the conversation that took place during tho fire, I don't remember hearing the names of Rice or Baylis mentioned. I was afterwards employed by Rosser to pull the roof off Berg's house, after he was committed to prison. He said it was in consequence of his having given him a notice to leave, which hnd b -en disregarded. John Elliott—l was cook at O'Callaghan's machine. I know the prisoner, who had been working there. He stopped to havo his tea on the Saturday-.night, when the fire occurred. He asked mc for a pannikin of tea, stating that he wanted to go home. He had never previously stopped for tea to the best of myknowledge. • This terminated the evideuce for the defence, and the Court adjourned until ten o'clock this morning.