THE COURTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3400, 9 June 1868, Page 4

THE COURTS.

SUPREME COUUT.— Monday. [Befoi* his Honor Mr. Jmtloe J. S. Moon* ] , The Court »t at 10 o'clock.

SHIKP-STBAIiING. James Berry, Bernard Coteman, Pet/p, .Ooieman, and William Oohmdii surrendered to their bail, and were placed in the dock, on an indictment charging them with stealing, on or about the 7th of M»rcb, seven ewer, the property of John Runciman^of Cambridge. TJhe prisoners pleaded not guilty. Mr. Wynn upp&rW'f or 1 the three Colemans, and Mr. Joy for the prisoner vß^rry. ' I After'sWttn'g the facts of the case, Mr. Brookfield called the following witnesses. I John Runciman, farmer, of Cambridge, deposed , that towards the end of February he went to D^ury with a flock of sheep that had been in his possession for some time. Tbe flock consisted of about 269 head. Got to Rhodei's Clearing on the 29th February; Saw William Colemstn, who asked .him if he had Idst any sheep, telling him that aome bad been found at the P«aoh Grove, On oounting the sbeep he mtyed seventeen!' Then sent bis man and boy to look after, them, and himself came on to Cambridge. Afterwards sAw'William Colemau again, bat he told him he could , sive him' no further information. Witness .asked him if he had seen the sheep again. Prisoner answered th»t he bad not, and prosecutor then came on to Auckland. On returning to Cambridge he had some conversation with a Mr.Wrigley, and in consequence of what he heard from him he (witness) went to look after the sheep. In the meantime some statement was made to him 'about the missing animals by his man, in consequence of which he went to Coleman 's farm. He there law William Coleman, and asked him if he had seen anything more of the missing sheep of wbioh he had told him (witness). Prosecutor said he wanted to have a look through his sheep. Coleman said he oould not go after them jusb then, but he would have the sheep down at the township in the morning, and he would be better able to examine. He said they were scattered all over the farm. Witness replied that; he would rather aeethem at onoe, and did so. „ They were pretty well 'together, and prosecutor recognised seven Leicester ewes among them as his property. He recognised them <by "the hrand and by the ear 'marks. The bramds were not ve>y distinct, and in one case had been nearly cut off. They were notjthe same kind of sheep as Coleman's flock, which was' coarser-bred at\d had more of the Lincoln in them. Besides other marks, one of the, sheep was blind in both eyes, and bad been so .since 1883. Witness swore positively that the geven sheep there were part of those which he had lost. On the following day he obtained a search warrant, and returned with a policeman to Coleman's bouse in the township, Not finding the prisoners there, he went on to the farm, where lie saw William Coleman. '.Again searched' the flock, but could not see one of the seven sheep which he bad recognised the day before as his property. Asked the Colemans ■ what they bad done with them, when they replied that the sheep were all there— they 'were just the same sheep he had seen the day before, neither more nor less. Witness and the policeman then went on towards the farm, taking different directions. ,The farm was not fen ced in. Witness followed certain tracks till he oame to a swamp, across that to more dry ground, and so on to adeuse rush swamp. There he found two dead sheep hid under the rushes. They « ere two of the same sheep that prosecutor had seen the night before among Coleman'* flock. The constable then went to Peter Coleman and took him prisoner. The dead sheep were afterward* taken, to Hamilton and skinned. The skin produced in Court was the skin belonging to one of those sheep. He recognised it by the brand. 'He couldjiot swear to the other akin produced. On the following day he returned to the .swamp, and found two more of his sheep. They had been killed the same as the others, aud were in a somewhat putrid state. Cross-examined by Mr. Wynn : T recognised the sheep by { the brands. Tbe brand has been .cut off from the hkin of one of the sheep, but I know it was my sheep' by the ear-marks. I recovered ten of the lost sbeep. WoGovern, the policeman, obtained them for me. John Gilberd, servant in the employ of Mr; Eunciman : I assisted .the prosecutor to drive some sheep to Drury in March last. When we got home with them to Cambridge we counted them, and found sixteen missing. About a week afterwards I went to Hamilton to look' for them. I left my horse in Mr. Coleman's paddock, but the next morning I found it gone. He told me that the gate must have been left open. On the n<-xfc Sunday I went to Coleman's farm and saw Peter Coleman. I asked him if he had seen anything of tbe missing sheep,, and he replied that he had not. He said a boy had seen some in the Peach Grove, but T saw none there. Afterwards went to several other places, but saw no sheep till we were ooming baok, I then saw Mr. Coleman's flock, and recognised three of Mr. Runciman's sheep by the brand EEL and by the ear-mark. I then told my master about them. I am quite sure that those three sheep belonged to Mr. Bunoiman. Cross-examined : I may have sworn on a previous occasion that I raw four, but I only saw three. I am not sure that we did net see four, but I will swear we saw three at least. Daniel Colley deposed he waa a settler residing near Hamilton. Saw Mr. Runciman driving a flock of sheep past bis place in March last. Sixteen of the sheep afterwards came back. Witness put them into M* paddock, l>ut they got out. Tn the evening Bernard Coleman and Berry came by with a flock of, .sheep. In answer to his question they said they had seen nothing of the sixteen missing ones. William Kerry deposed that he was a settler residing near Cambridge. After proseoutor had driven his flock past in Maroh last, sixteen of them returned to tbe place, and he assisted the last witness to put them into a paddock. In the evening Bernard Coleman and Berry came to the house. They said they had not seen the sheep. Witness had since seen somo of these sheep in the oonatable'g obarge at Hamilton.. < Constable^ McG-overn gave evidence confirming the statement made by the first witness, with regard to searching the prisoner's farm. Peter Coleman and his two sons occupied the farm. In addition the witness gave the following evidence : I oautioned Peter Coleman when I apprehended him. He then made the following statement. He aaid, "It was not my fault that the sheep were there ; — if I had got my will they never would have beeo. Mr. Runciman could not have seen seven the previous evening as I had only six, and those I bought from Berry." I afterwards apprehended William Coleman. He said he was absent from tbe district at the time, and could get plenty of witnesses to prove it. On the following day I saw the prisoner Berry at Te Awamufcu. I asked him if he bad brought up any sbeep from Auckland lately. He said he had. I asked him if be had met any sheep between Hamilton and Ngaruaw*hia. , He said he bad not, but he had seen some stray sheep at the Queen's Redoubt. He then said, " There are some lambs among mine which do not belong to me." He pointed out five. I apprehended him for sheep- stealing. Cross-examined by Mr. Joy : Berry lives about seventeen miles from the Colemans. After I had apprehended these latter I went to Berry's to look for ten more sheep in oonsequence of what Mr. Coleman had told mi. This was the case for the prosecution. Mr. Joy asked his Honor to direct the jury to return a verdict of acquittal in the case of Berry. Having regard to the whole case, considering the time that Berry had had this charge banging over him, he would ask his Honor to say that Berry left , the Court without a stain upon his character. , His Honor said he had no objection to do so as far as the evidence before the Court had gone. The prisoner was then acquitted. Mr. Wynn then made a powerful appeal to the jury on behalf of his three clients. There was not a tittle of evidence against them, and if such evidence was to convict the prisoners no man would be safe. Certain sheep were found dead upon the prisoners' unenclosed ground, and they were asked to convict of felony on such paltry evidence as had been laid before them. He Mas quite sure they would do the same in this case as had been done in the case of Berry, and acquit the prisoners without a stain upon their character. His Honor then proceeded to sum up and address the jury on the various ]>oints which had come out in the evidence When he (the learned Judge) had first read over the depositions he had thought it was certainly a stronger oase than it had turned out to be that day. Without leaving the box the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. < 1 The priiofiert ware at onoe discharged. The Court then adjourned till 10 o'clock this morning.