MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 119, 17 October 1874, Page 2

MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

CHRISTCHURCH. Saturday, Oct 17. (Before C. C. Bowen, Esq., R.M.) DRUNK AND DISORDERLY. Wm Orton, for drunkenness, was fined 10s; John Heunessy, 10s; and Hugh Travers, 20s. VIOLENT ASSAULT. James Morris was charged with violently assaulting Mrs Bromley, and wilfully breaking some panes of glass. Mrs Bromley stated that prisoner came to her house the previous evening, and asked her for the £5-note he had given her previously for board and lodging, and for money he owed her husband, and because she would not give it to him, he struck her on the head with a paling. Her head was very much cut, and she had been obliged to go and see a doctor. E. Bromley, husband of the previous witness, gave evidence of the assault, and stated that the accused had broken twenty panes of glass, and damaged the place. Other evidence was given of the assault. Chief-Detective Feast said that the prisoner had arrived from Auckland some short time since. He ostensibly gained his living by hawking fish, but he (the detective) constantly saw him with women of ill fame, and from what had come to his knowledge he believed him to be a thief and a vagabond. His Worship said he had been anxious to know something about the prisoner. The attack on the prosecutrix had been a most cowardly and scandalous one, and prisoner would be sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labor. VAGRANCY. Mary Ann Greaves and Ellen Thompson, two disorderly women who had been arrested for drunkenness, and who had been repeatedly convicted, were remanded until Monday for further enquiries to be made about how they have lately been living. VAGRANCY. Alex. Le Bas was brought up on a charge of vagrancy, Henry Mullen stated that he kept the Cambridge boarding house. Prisoner came ;o his house on Monday the 9th, and asked if ie could get board and lodging. He got his dinner, and said that he was going to work for Mr Millet, and referred witness to several

gentlemen for character. When he returned to his tea he said he was going to work for Mr Millett for £2 10s a week, and that he was going to be a constant boarder. Some few days afterwards he said he had got a billet on the railway, and got the loan of some clothes and 3s to go and see the gentleman who had got the billet for him. The only reason why he allowed accused to stay at his place was his representation that he was working for Mr Millet. By accused—You did not say you had got the promise of a billet, but that you had one, nor did you tell me that you would pay me when you got a billet. George Poupart gave evidence of having lent the accused a shirt and a small amount of money on his representation that he was working for Mr Millet. Thos. Aldridge, livery stablekeeper, said that accused had hired a horse on two days, and did not pay for them on either day. When he (witness) told him that he did not know him, he said that Mr Malet at the Court, was a nephew of his.

Mr Malet said that accused called at his office some few days ago, and said he had come from Jersey, and mentioned the names of some persons there. He said that he was very hard up, had been laid up in the hospital, and asked him if he could get him some work, and said he had been employed on the Great Western Railway. He also said he had gone through the Maori war with Major Von Temsky, but did not get his discharge, nor had he any testimonials from the railway. He (witness) promised to see Mr Maude for him, and gave him what silver he had about him. Did not hear anything more of the accused until he heard from the detective that he had been trading on the conversation they had had together. By Detective Feast—Prisoner is not my uncle that I am aware of.

After tlie prisoner had made a rambling statement, his Worship said the case waj one of downright swindling, but as this was prisoner’s first offence he did not wish to be hard on him, and he would be sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labor, ASSAULT. Charles Cole was charged, on summons, with assaulting his wife, Mary Ann Cole. Mr Thomas appeared for the defendant. The complainant stated that her husband had knocked her down, kicked her, and struck her in the back, destroyed all her beautiful clothes, and now wanted to take her watch, which she had bought with her own earnings before she was married. She was in bodily fear of him. In cross-examination by Mr Thomas, the witness stated that she did not stick her husband with a hay fork, nor throw a rung of a chair or any stone at him, nor was her step-daughter obliged to leave the house through her ill-treatment. Mr Thomas called Mrs Pratt, who stated that she saw the complainant one day run at her husband, and strike at his face; He was not provoking her when she did this. Fanny Cole stated that the complainant, who was her stepmother, was very kind to her for the first week, and one day after that said that if she did not keep out of her way she would knock her brains out. Her stepmother on Wednesday ran at her father with a hay fork, and struck it in her cheek. She also struck her (witness) one day on the head. Other evidence of complainant’s conduct to her husband was given, and her having used a statement that when she got him in Court she’d swear his life away. She had also threatened in the presence of a witness to knife her husband. His Worship said it was evident these parties could not live together, and it would be much better for them to make some arrangement to live separate. He would dismiss the case, and he thought it would be advisable for some understanding towards % separation to be come to. LYTTELTON. Friday, October 16. [Before W. Donald, Esq., R.M.] DRUNKENNESS. Robert Boyd, arrested , by .Constable Maguire, charged with the above, was remanded: for three days for medical treatment. MM I' .VAGRANCY. , . - ( William Henry Hudson was brought up charged with being an habitual drunkard, and sentenced, upon the . information of Constable McGorman, to one month’s imprisonment. t _ j, ~..