POLICE COURT.—Saturday. [Before T. Beckham, Esq., R.M.]

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3044, 29 April 1867, Page 5

POLICE COURT.— Saturday. [Before T. Beckham, Esq., R.M.]

DBUNKENNISS. There was but oae person brought before the Court for drunkenness, who receired the usual punishment. LARCENY. William Richards was brought up charged with having on the night of 9th April feloniously stolen from the atores of Messrs. Cruickshank, Smart, and Co., eight white blankets and a wrapper, valued at £1 2s. 6d. f their property. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. _ James Whitelaw, storeman lo Messrs. Cruickshank, Smart, and Co., deposed that he locked the store door on the evening of 9th April. There were a quantity of blankets and other goods in the store. When he returned next morning he found that the •window had been forced open and a bale of blankets opened. A number o£ blankets (produced) were taken from the bale. Their value is £1 2s. 6d. Esther Woolley, who resides at Mount Eden, deposed that the prisoner came to her house one evening and brought a bundle of blankets. H« wanted her to buy them, as he and his "chum" were hard uj» and were going away. She bought about seven blankets from him, and paid 6s. 6d. for Detective Ternahan deposed that he arrested the prisoner in a tent at Mount Eden on the previous evening. He found two blankets in the tent similar to those produced in Court. # The prisoner stated that he received the blankets from a man named Mullin to sell for him. Michael Mullin deposed that he had never seen the blankets before. He saw the prisoner coming into the tent with a bag containing some goods one night about a fortnight ago. He never gave the prisoner Naughton stated that the prisoner had been arrested on several occaatons for theft, but the charges could not be substantiated ag The*prSner was sentenced to four months' imprisonment with hard labour. His Worship said that those persons who were living in tents at Mount Eden were tresspMsew, and ihould be removed. There ttm no doubt but such persons lived on pilfering.

The proßpecto of the agriculturist in Canterbury are thus stated in the byttdton Times of the 16th:— "The trade of the {province is still in » very depressed state, and the date of recovery is rendered still more remote by the low prices farmers are obtaining for their grain. Three shillings a bushel for wheat, with labour »t eight shillings a day, leaves nothing but loss as the result of farming operations. As farming is the interest second in importance to wool-growiog in Canterbury, it becomes a very serious question when it ceases to be remunerative. People are beginning to ask whether it might not be for the general interest to protect an industry with the welfare of whioh ftU are mow or lets ptfmtlitely wm nP '