SUPREME COURT.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16816, 23 April 1920, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

criminal sitting. (Before Lis Honour ilr Justice Hordman.) PRISONERS FOB SENTENCE. Morten James Fraser. chargcd thefts was admitted to probation for tvrcive ao.. az, and ordered to pay £2 2s. the costs o: tLo prosecution, within one n-.onlli. . John Andrew Button, en a charge ot indecent Rssault, was sentenced to three rears hard labour. , , Mr O. T. J. Alpers, vrho appeared .or Henry Burnett Jones, charged witn the Chatham Islands, si?.ted that tnc- acao. of accused wa3 inexplicable. Accused was o your.jr man in a large v.vy oi business in tiie Island.. and had the confidence oi his bankers and the esteem of the Ir-lnr.ders v On t:';? evening of the crime, apparently alter he bad been drinking, he went up to t-.'.e 'I 1 the ho!c-l he wa3 staying at. and in t..e dark abstracted rotes to the value of about _ojJ. The<=e he planted in two stockings in the vicinity of the hotel. "When the notes were missed, there was a hue and cry, but no one suspected Jone-., who, however. went c.ong to the police and stated he had taken t._ie notes and planted then:. .They were ,cund in the places mentioned by him intact. It hardly seemed as if there were a criminal motive on tho part of accu?cd. who anpenred to be more of a fool than a rogue. Evidence as .o accused's good chp-acter wn = Hven by _^' iar _ es "SVishart, a shcpfarrr.er, rcsidirg at the Is.anas. Hi- Honour c>;d it wa« ituposssb.e to overlook tho theft, which could not have been the rerult of a drunken freak. Prisoner w.~Usd bo sentenced to eighteen months' hard labour. In fho case of Leonard Collinson, chargca with fa!«e pretences and forgery and utter* inj, Mr AY. M. Kamilion. who appeared for the Crown, asked that sentence bo deferred for a few cloys to permit of further investigation beinp made. Mr Alpers said ft enjreresfion had been made that accused was sufler- »)<* from shell rhock, and was rot altogether responsible for his arlions. and it was aesired to have him mcdicalv examined, t:nce waa deferred. In the esse of Arthur John Patience, c'nargf d with bigamy, Mr H. S. J. Goodman sa:d accused's wir-> was prepared to fnVe him lwck and io-?ivo him the wrong he had done her. Accused was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment. IN BANCO. Reserved judgment was given in ro George Paget Milsom, deceased, legal argument in which cas? was heard before his Honour on Wednesday. His Honour considered that tho will showed plainly that the deceased had it in his mmd to divide tho moneys payable ur.der his life insurance policy between the son and daughter named by him, and he therefore directed tJmt the moneys -payable ivnder the policy be distributed as followsTo Georgo Paget Milsom two-thirds, to Lena Linstock one-third. Tho costs of all parties were ordered to be paid out of the estate. Legal' argument was heard in the case ot Ar.drow Lpc3, Ltd. v. John Brightling,_ claim .£3lO 5s 6d, damages unon n motion by Mr M. J. Gresson on behalf of Brightling for a non-suit or for judgment for defendant. Mr Alpers appeared for plaintiffs. Judgment was reserved. The Court adjourned till Monday nest at J0.30 a.m.