RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT. This Day.

Evening Post, Volume XIII, Issue 7, 10 January 1876, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT. This Day.

(Before J. C. Crawford, Esq., R.M., Colonel Reader, Major Paul, and .hia Worship the Mayor.) USING THREATENING LANGUAGE. Wm. Phillips was charged with using threatening language towards Thomas Bpuld. Prosecutor stated that he was a publican residing at Pahautanui, and knew the prisoner, who went to his house for the first time about the 22nd December; on Wednesday last prisoner went to the house and abused witness about a swag which he could not find; during Thursday prisoner remained in the house and behaved himself very improperly; witness told prisoner that if yev c did not conduct himself properly he would be put out ; prisoner then told witness he " would mark him " if he was put out of the house ; he defied witness; witness considered prisoner a dangerous man who would not - hesitate to carry out his threats'; prisoner had behaved indecently to witness' wife. By prisoner : Accused was in the bar when he defied witness to put him t>ut. . Inspector Atcheson asked for a remand for a week, which was granted. , MURDER. • William Phillips (the same prisoner) was charged with the murder of Hugh Hannah at. Lake Ohau, Otago, on 25th November last. Dennis Ryan, district constable of Porirua, deposed,: In consequence of receiving certain information on Saturday last, 1 went to Pahautanui, where I found prisoner working for a farmer name Alex. Mackay ; I told him I wanted a man who answered to his description, that I was a police constable, and that I wished to ask bim some questions ; I asked him where • he came from last, and he replied "from the South Island ; " I asked him whether it was from Canterbury or Otago ; he said Otago ; I asked him what pfert of Otago he came from, and he said he "was on the Hogburn and on the Dunstan ; I asked him if he was ever on Gabriel's Gully or Waitehuna ? y he said "yes;" I ,asked whether he had ever been at Lake Ohau ? he immediately said then " What's up ; is anyone murdered ?" I asked him when he arrived in Otago, and he said about 11 or 12 years ago; I asked "him what ship he arrived in? nd ahe said *• The King of Italy ;" he told me he was i a sailor ; he said he had been working at wood-cutting, and on diggings and stations while he was in Otago ; he could not, or would not, tell me how he was employed in November last ; he told me he had been working on the West Coast, after which I arrested him, 1»ld him the charge against him, and read over hisdescription to' him ; I examined his arms and the backs of his hands, and I found tattoo marks corresponding with those named in the official description of the snpposed murderer ; he said at first that he was an American, and afterwards that he was an Englishman, and subsequently that h» was an Irishman; he also said he was a

half-caste ; he told me he had been working in Otaki for about five weeks. By prisoner : You told me your age was 37 or 38, but not that you were 40 on the 3rd January last. Prisoner was then remanded for a week. ATTEMPT TO MURDER. Frantz Smat was charged with attempt; ing to murder Wm. Reidal, -on December 25th last, at the Upper Hutt, by cutting and wounding him with an American axe. The depositions of the various witnesses who had. previously given evidence on the subject were read over to the prisoner. Dr. W. A. Bradford deposed: On the 27th of December a man named Harry Young was admitted to the .hospital, and. I examined his wounds ; Young was suffering from an incised wound op. the right side of the neck ; the wound waa about three inches in length, and was situated about two inches above the collar bone ; on examination I found that the external jugular vein had been divided; the vein was ligatured, and the wound dressed in the ordinary way; Young is still an inmate of the Hospital, and is likely to remain so for some time ; he is • not entirely out of danger at the present time ; any sharp cutting inftrument would have inflicted the wound j the blow need not have been a heavy one if 4±lxe instrument . was very sharp ; Young, when * admitted, was bleeding very freely from LJhe wound. ** Prisoner declined to ask witness any questions, and the further hearing of the case was adjourned for eight days. BREACH OF THE PUBLICANS* ACT. J ames Martyn was charged with a breach of the above Act, by selling liquor to one Harry Young at the Criterion Hotel Upper Hutt, en 26th December. Defendant pleaded guilty, and was represented by Mr. Moorhouse, who submitted that Young, having gone from Wellington to the Upper Hutt, was a bona fide traveller, and that his client was, therefore justified in supplying him with liquor. Mr. Moorhouse further stated that ' the proprietors of such public houses as that held by the defendant were often compelled, owing to the character of their customers, to supply liquor whenever a demand was made upon them. He submitted that the liquor was only supplied in the presentjf€ase to prevent something worse from taking place. The Court considered that this infraction of the Act had led to serious consequences, namely, the late murderous assault by Smat. Defendant would, therefore, be fined £10 and costs.