SUPREME COURT

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1933, Page 2

SUPREME COURT

CRIME IN SOUTHLAND. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] INVERCARGILL, August 14. The quarterly session of the Supreme Court in Invercargill, opened this morning, before Mr Justice Kennedy, there being a long list of criminal and civil cases. “I regret I must tell you that the list of business for this criminal sessions discloses a disquieting amount of crime in your district,” said His Honor, in his address to the Grand Jury. “You have not escaped the wave of breaking and entering. Three persons with pleas of guilty await sentence on charges of breaking and entering. Accusations will be made against seven persons, and in three cases thirteen charges of breaking and entering arc involved. In some in-

1 stances, two or more persons are said ’ to have acted in concert, and there is ' some duplication in charges to which I refer, but, even allowing for this, it J still remains that crime has been* un- ' usually prevalent in Southland.” Hugh Healey was found guilty of being intoxicated while in control of a motor car, and by his failure* to exercise proper care, causing the death of Samuel George Inder, the brother-in-law of accused. He was remanded for sentence, the jury strongly recommending mercy on the ground of the mental stress which the accused must have suffered by reason of the death of his brother-in-law. NEW PLYMOUTH SESSIONS. NEW PLYMOUTH, August 14. Hairs on the under part of the car that the accused man was driving formed the principal evidence in a charge of negligently driving and thereby causing bodily injury to Harold William Hill, brought against Leonard Bicheno at the Supreme Court to-day. a A pathologist, in evidence, said the hairs were similar to those taken from Hill’s body. Bicheno declared that he was driving at midnight when he found Hill lying injured on the road, and took him to a doctor, and informed the police. The hearing will be continued to-morrow. The Grand Jury returned no bill against, a Maori girl, Bella Thompson, on the charge of murdering her infant child, but a true bill against her ou a charge of concealment of birth. GISBORNE’S WHITE GLOVES GISBORNE, August 15. At the opening of the Supreme Court to-day, Mr. Justice Blair was presented with a pair of white gloves to mark the fact there were no criminal cases to be dealt with. His Honor congratulated the district on the absence of crime, and remarked this was only the second occasion during his six years’ judicial service that a similar presentation had been made to him.