SUPREME COURT SITTINGS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 208, 27 May 1908, Page 9

SUPREME COURT SITTINGS.

1 —4—- — (BY TEI.ECiHArn.—rHM.I ASSOeiiTIOH.I j ' / Wanganul, May 26.: ; The Supreme Court opened this morning before Mr. Justice Cooper. No cases were presented to grand or common. juries,- which is unprecedented in the history of Waneanui.. The 'Judge-said it was a 1 matter for congratulation that there should be an absence of crimo" in the district; Thcro were, however, two prisoners who had , pleaded guilty in the lower, courts, and had been remanded 1 to the Supreme Court for sen-1 tence. ; For making a false declaration in a death certificate, George Aitken was fined j £5. James Stapleton,'for theft of £23' from the person, was, remanded for sentence,' 1 with a view to ascertaining whether ho should he declared, an habitual criminal. 1 There-is a lengthy. civil list to bo dealt with and one divorce case. ' Auckland, May 26. ... Edward Kirby, 50 years of age, charged with indecently assaulting a child <!£ years of age, was given the maximum sentonco of Boven 1 years' .imprisonment.' Mr. Justico,Edwards said Ho would not 'in . this' e'aso disregard tho. medical evidence that ..accused was' suffering from'valvular disease of the heart,, hut in future ,ho would not listen to suchevidence, leaving-it to the Government surgeon to satisfy himself that tho prisoner is in a fit state to receivo a flogging. ' A, number of'prisoners who had -pleaded guilty in the lower court, were sentenced today by Mr. Justice Edwards.- Walter-Fergu-son AVallcer, "for forgery and uttering, was brdored to make full restitution and to spond twolve months on Bell's.lsland, rJoseph Caltan,; for causing actual .bodily harm at Gisborne, was admitted to probation for two years. William Scarboro'' and' Norman Johnston for theft, were each sentenced to two years' hard labour. . : . Dunadin, May 26. . At the criminal sittings,' Mr. Justico Williams, in his charge to the Grand Jury, commented on tho lightness of tho'calendar. Only mine were accused, and somo, of them were exceedingly light cases and none speciallyserious. - There were' two charges of assault, one each of indecent assault, one of obscene language, one of stealing, one under the Bankruptcy Act, one, of ono of,manslaughter., , - ■ . .John Friend, charged with assaulting, a .girl aged nine years and four months at Port Chalmers, was found not guilty. ' " William Ravenswood .pleaded, not guilty, to a charge of forging a birth certificate.' The evidence showed that accused was bom in 1886, but that, ho thought ho was 23 past. He sent in an application to the Railway Department for employment, and mads it. appear that lie was born iu 1884. His explanation of tho alteration of tho figures m the birth certificate was that the figures'were, so'indistinct lie could* scarcely make them out. The jury returned a verdict of not.guilty. ,