MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 173, 10 April 1923, Page 11

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

POLICE AND MAINTENANCE CASES Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., presided over the sitting of the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning. A young woman, Florence Smith, appeared on a charge of having stolen £2 2s. in money, the property of James Hobden.

Chief-Detective Kemp asked that the charge be amended to apply to 2s. only. The complainant, who was an employee of the Harbour Board, resided in the house in which the accused was employed as a domestic. He missed £2 2,5. from a pocket of a garment hanging in his room. Becoming suspicious, he marked a number of coins, and later one of those coins, a two-shilling piece, was found in her possession. When questioned by Detective Revell, the woman denied all knowledge of the money. Mr. J. Scott, who appeared for the accused, said that she had found tho coin under the bed when sweeping out the room, and had kept it. The Magistrate remanded accused for a week in order that Mrs. Glover, of the Salvation Army, might inquire into her character. FOUND SLEEPING IN SHED. Barnet Davifis, aged 31, a recent arrival from England, came up for sentence on a charge of being a rogue and a vagabond, in that he had been found sleeping in a shed in the city. Sub-Inspector Cummings explained that the man’s employers at Cambridge were unable to take him back, as the milking season had almost closed. The Salvation Army were prepared to maintain accused until he obtained employment. “That is very good of them,” remarked the Magistrate, as he convicted ths accused, and ordered him to come up for sentence when called upon. MAINTENANCE CASES. Frank Brett, whose arrears amounted to £ll2 10s., was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, the warrant to bp suspended so long as he pays off £4l 17s. 2d., at the rate of 15s. per Mark Webber, who was £25 behind in his payments, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment. Edith Brown applied for a separation order from her husband, Syren Milton Brown, on the grounds of persistent cruelty and failure to maintain. The order was granted, the custody of the children being given to the petitioner, and tha defendant was orderd to pay £2 ss. per week maintenance.