MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 36, 11 August 1927, Page 4

MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Police cases in the Magistrate's Court to-day were "dealt with by Mr. E. Page, S.M.

Pereival Leo Minifie, a clerk, aged 45, who had previously had his name suppressed, appeared for sentence on a charge of having stolen a purse containing £4 2s from his landlady's room. Mr. it. E. Pope asked that probation be granted, and that the name be again suppressed. The offence was the result of a drinking bout, he said, and the accused had !uo previous convictions. Admittedly he had been suspected of stealing tea money from aii office where he had been working three years ago, but nothing had come of that. The Magistrate said that the report of the Probation Officer (Mr. J. P. Mills) was not altogether favourable. He imposed a fine of £10, to be paid at the rate of £1 a week, and also ordered Minifie to make restitution. The request for the suppression of publication of the name was refused.

Six months' imprisonment was imposed on Michael Joseph Cunningham, a seaman, aged 35, who stowed away on the Manuka at Melbourne and took with him when he disembarked at Wellington a gold watch and chain belonging to a fireman. Cunningham, who lias twelve previous convictions, none of which are for dishonesty, was also fined £5, in default one month's imprisonment, for stowinc away. The theft of a quilt worth os "from a boarding-house in Cuba street was denied by John Stewart Louden and Theodethero Garbcs, both aged 33. Their explanation was that they were returning from a party early on Sunday morning, neither of them being sober, and that they found the quilt in a doorway. The Magistrate said that he thought the charge of theft had been established. The whole affair seemed to have been a very stupid one, as neither of the men would have any use for the quilt. A fine of £3, in default fourteen days' imprisonment, was imposed in each case.

You must be of good behaviour and get work as soon as you can, not be begging about the streets," said Mr. Page in committing Richard Henry O'Connell, a bushman and miner, aged 47, for being idle and disorderly. The evidence showed that the accused had been accosting men and asking them for money. He was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within twelve months.

Alleged to have 6toleu a mail-bag containing £10,000 in money, from a Londonbound express last February, and to have received the bag knowing it to be dishonestly obtained. Joseph Foster, alias Daniel Leonard Davies, a traveller, aged ■w, was remanded for a further week. "

Our first offender for drunkenness, a Maori woman, who spent the night in the cells, was convicted aud discharged.

The monthly sitting of the Upper Hutt Magistrate's Court was held yesterday, Messrs. P. Robertson and W. Greg, J.P.s, presiding. For using obscene language. A. Russell and L. Quinn were each fined £1.

On assault charges E. Russell and L. Quinn were convicted and discharged.