SUPREME COURT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 595, 25 August 1909, Page 11

SUPREME COURT.

THE CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

'ACQUITTED ON SECOND TRIAL. The, retrial of Peter Williamson Tait took ? | place yesterday before his Honour Mr. Jus1' / tico' Chapman and a jury of twelve. Charged with having assaulted David M'Coll and Martha Monday with a knife, Tait camo be- , fore the Court on Thursday last, but tho Juty 1 -failed to agree. Another jury was empanelled on Monday to again hear tho case. Mr. Myers appeared for tho Crown, and Mr.' Herdman for Accused. ' Evidence for tho prosecution was given to the effect that tho assault was the outcome of ft,difference between two boarders at tlio ' t houso ''Of Miss Monday, 38 Kent Terrace. - ' M'Coll, who was a driver, had an argument ) with accused on tho evening of May 28. Tho reason given for the altercation was that M'Coll had been .charged with having failed^to deliver a notß at tho Government Insurance office, where accused was emi, ployed. A fight took place, in which accused, who was alleged to bo under the in- ' fluerice of drink, used a pocket knifo, and inflicted numerous wounds on M'Coll and one or-two, on Miss Monday. Tho defence was that accused was pcr- • , fectly sober, and that the knife had.been u*ed solely in self-protection. Accused i stilted, ■in ovidence, that ho had been to | l South-'Africa as lieutenant in the Seventh , ' Contingent. There ho had contracted mal- | {trial fever, and later he had had his leg in- '' jured'in a railway accident in Wellington. ' He "was, therefore, phvsic'ally weak, and waa - ' no. match.' for a burly driver. It was only j " when he considered Kis life to bo in danger .■I, i that'he'made use of the pocket knife. Evi- •■\ dence as to accused's good reputation was given; by J. ( W. Poynton (Public Trustee), H.' L'. i James (assistant librarian at tho Parliamentary Library), and William M'Kay (bookseller). ' > , The" jury retired at 2.35 p.m., and, after an hour's deliberation, brought in a verdict , of not giiilty. Accused, was then discharged. \ > 'ALLEGED THEFT AND'FORGERY. A' young man, Edgar John Blackburn Clough,' was charged with having stolen a cheque for £10, the property of John Raymond -,'Bethwaite, with having committed forgery by altonng tho date of the cheque \ from April 1• to April 21, and with having obtained £10 from ' Richard Walter 'Brown by„means,of false pietences. . Mr. ■"Williams appeared for the accused, who pleaded not guilty. , • ■ Mr. Myers said that tho accused and Bethwaite spent a good deal of time together 1 in Wellington, when the latter came over from Nelson, on April '20. A chequo which' Bethwaito" had had in his pocket-case was cashed by accused in tho office of Samuel Rrown, Ltd. When presenting the cheque to be cashed, accused said that he had himself' Cashed the cheque for Mrs. Parsonage, • tho payee, who was Bethwaite's mother-in-law. >v ; , | Richard Walter' Brown, one of the'directors of jSamuel Brown, Ltd., stated that ho cash'ed'a cheque for £10 tendered by accused on April 23. Accused explained that he had cashed, the chequo on tho wharf for Mrs. Parsonage, who was leaving for Sydney'that day, '; He also produced. Bethwaite's,card, i and said, that Mrs. Parsonage was Bethi waiters mother-in-law. Ellen Parsonage, licensee of the Wakatu Hotel, Nelson, stated that sho was in Nelson on, April 23, and sho had never been to oydney. f # John Raymond Bethwaite, ironmonger, of Nelson,-stated that he wrote-a cheque for' £10, on ,the morning of April 1, with a view to going, to the races, jtt was not cashed, and it remained in his pocket until ho came to Wellington on the twentieth of the month. He met the accused, whom ho had known torv two years, and they ' visited' several hotels.,'i , ~.„._,,, '_,_.„ Detective Connolly gave ovidence to tho effect .'that accused, ".when atrbstedy stated , that ho had lent Bethwaite'£7, with which - w». ,go to the' -Wellington t races', i He" also said'that Bethwaito had given him a chequo in .neQlotel Cecil, with instructions to cash it and-meet him later. When ho returned to.tno hotel, Bethwaite was not there. lor. the'defence, Fiank F. DaLjn, hotelKeeper, and Constablo Cummings gave ovidonce.' '• ' >„ < Tho r jury retired at fifteen minutes past • 70 L1 ( !. c , 1 ? 1 c , k '' and returned at a quarter past eight-with a verdict of guilty, on .tho count J, t *? re , te n.co 3.' Sentence was' postponed until Thursday morning. \'r i