SUPREME COURT TRIALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 February 1937, Page 7

SUPREME COURT TRIALS

ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE WOMAN GRANTED PROBATION [PEB PBES9 ASSOCIATION.] HAMILTON, February IS. A European woman, Petrina Louise Kui, who lives with a Chinese at Cambridge, was convicted in the Supreme Court to-day on two charges of attempted murder and one of attempted suicide. The charges were that on December 24 she attempted to murder her two half-caste Chinese children, Keith Leong Petersen and Nancy Lee Petersen, and, further, with attempting to commit suicide. The Crown Prosecutor advised the jury that it might be wise to consider the case leniently. In opening the Crown’s case, Mr Fitzgerald said that for the last six years the accused had been living in Cambridge with Fong Bink Kui, and the two had posed as man and wife. They had two children, and since the Lower Court hearing the pair had been married. Dr. Henry Charles Tod, of Cambridge, said that on December 24 he went to the kitchen of Fong Lee s laundry in Empire Street, Cambridge. He found the accused and her two children with the front portion of their clothes saturated with blood. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts, with a strong! recommendation to mercy. _ I Mr Justice Fair said he agreed with the recommendation, and' admitted the prisoner to probation for twelve months.

AT WANGANUI. WANGANUI, February IS. In the Supreme Cou,rt, Hori Rawhiti, a young Ratana Maori, was found not guilty of placing an obstruction on the railway line near Ratana. Evidence called by the Crown showed that a fish-plate, weighing 91bs, and a dog spike, both thought capable of derailing a train, had been placed on the rails just before the arrival of the New Plymouth-Wellington express at Ratana on November 1. Surfacemen found this obstruction, removed it, and accosted the accused, who, with a small son aged four, was seen near the locality. The jury retired for only a few minutes. Paul Nodwell, aged 57, single, was convicted by a jury of arson by wilfully setting fire to his dwelling-house. The trial lasted three, and a-half days, a second trial being ordered when the first was three parts completed, because a brother of the accused was seen talking to a juryman. Counsel for Nodwell, Mr V. B. Willis, addressed the jury for an hour and forty minutes. In delivering its verdict, the jury made a strong recommendation to mercy because of the prisoner s state of health. Nodwell was remanded for sentence.

ALLEGED SHARE-HAWKING. CHRISTCHURCH, February 18. In the Bridgewater share-hawking case, Edith Mary Chapman, a married ■woman, said that she bought Investment Executive Trust debentures m 1934. Bridgewater called on her unexpectedly in 1935, and asked her to transfer to the Australasian Coinpan' but she refused to make a transfer. Cecelia. Eugenie Anderson,' married, described her dealings with Bridgewater as a result of which she transferred £2210 of debentures of the Investment Executive Trust, receiving an equivalent amount of shares m the Australasian Investment Corporation in exchange.. To Mr H. F. O’Leary (counsel fol the accused) witness said she thought that she remembered receiving a letter fiom Bridgewater, in which he said he. would call on her. Similar, evidence was given by Elizabeth Ann Morton. Robert Id’aac Peters, William Gilmour Bruce (Ashburton), James Mclntyre Russell. Ralph Trevor Buchanan. Jekyll Ivy Steel Robson, and William Neeye. At the conclusion of the evidence, submissions were made to his Honor by counsel on the legal aspect of the allegations. For the defence, Mr O’Leary submitted that actions of Bridgewater, which were admitted, did not constitute a house-to-house canvass in the sense in which the term was generally understood. He contended that there was nothing in the reading of the Statute which limited the meaning of the term to any particular type of canvass. So far as offering shares to the public was concerned, he submitted that shares were not offered to the general public, but to a selected group of persons, namely, to people who owned debentures in a particular | company, and who had had previous business dealings with the accused. In the present case, persons had been selected at eleven different points in the city and Ashburton, and in no sense could this be construed as going from house to house. For the Crown, Mr Lascelles contended that nothing could be more natural than for a canvasser to select people upon whom he would call in what was generally called a house-to-house canvass, lie submitted that the term did not, necessarily, mean going from door-to-door, and that some element of selection was necessary. He said the. persons selected by Bridgewater wore none the less members of the public. Otherwise, it would he open for a man to “take down” all his .friends and acquaintances because they would not be regarded strictly as members of the outside public. The case was adjourned until tomorrow morning, when counsel will address the jury.

NOT GUILTY VERDICT. CHRISTCHURCH. February 19. A verdict of not guilty was returned, this morning, at the trial of Osmond Arthur Bridgewater, on eleven charges of share-hawking. The jury was absent for fifteen minutes. In summing up, Mr. .Justice Northcroft said that the section of the Companies Act under which Bridgewater was charged did not make it an offence to carry on share transactions in dwelling houses, and if it were so intended, then it was most unhappily worded, and only prohibited going from

house to house to offer shares to the public, or a member of the public. THEFT CHARGE. INVERCARGILL, February IS. In the Supreme Court to-day, Henry Hunt Mans'on pleaded not guilty to a charge of the theft of £4l in money, the property of Samuel Innes of Milford Sound. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr. H. J. Macalister) said that the accused, who was working at Milford, and was going to Invercargill, was given a sum of £4l by Samuel Innes, another worker at Milford, to deliver to Innes’s brother. There was no question of the accused not having received the money from Innes. He returned to Milford later, and only when Innes visited him, at his camp did the accused inform him that he (accused) had lost the money. He said that it had disappeared by the time he had got to Bluff The Crown’s case rested on proving that the statements the accused had made about what he had done witii the money were false. After several witnesses for the prosecution had been heard, the hearing was adjourned till toffnorrow.

STOLEN GOLD CUPS INVERCARGILL. February 19. Richard Frederick Martyn appeared for sentence at the Supreme Court, this morning, for theft of four gold cups from Burwood Station, last August. ■Judge Kennedy ordered prisoner to be detained for reformative purposes for fifteen months. In passing sentence. His Honor said the crime had long been evolved in accused’s mind, and for months the plunder had been concealed, and its whereabouts only revealed under duress. “You have not been in trouble for many years,” added the .Judge, “but your previous experiences should have taught you that dishonesty does not pay. In view of the fact you have not been in trouble since 1918. J propose to make a sentence of reformative detention, and not hard labour.”