COURT NEWS.

Grey River Argus, 22 June 1927, Page 2

COURT NEWS.

(Per Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, June 20. The hearing was commenced to-day in the Supreme Court, before the Chief Justic and a special jury of twelve, of a claim for £2OOO by Ivy Hollingshead Wifjis, against David B. Howden and others, in respect of the loss of her husband, John Willis, who, with Philip Allen, was killed by a lift falling on him on October 13, 1926. She alleged negligence on the part of the defendants in not providing proper apparatus for braking the lift. Defendants denied negligence, and alternatively pleaded contributory negligence. The case was adjourned till to-morrow.

The annual conference of. the New Zealand Workers’ Union, which concluded its sitting in Wellington last Friday, unanimously carried a strong ly worded resolution protesting against an Order in Council gazetted on December 8, 1924, providing that a case for damages brought by an injured man against his employer, independently of the Workers’ Compensation Act, must be tried before a Judge alone, unless the Judge sees fit to order a jury. The conference considered the Order “an unwarranted and dis creditable discrimination against wonting men.” CARGO PILLAGERS. AUCKLAND, June 21 John Wallace Thurlow, 25; and Lewis Robert William Knight, 25, were charged at the Police Court, with pillaging cargo from the holds of vessels. Accused pleaded guilty. All the goods had been recovered. The Magistrate said that the thefts had extended over a long period. He convicted both on one charge, and remanded them till Tuesday in custody. SOLICITOR ACCUSED. GISBORNE, June 20. A solicitor, John Nodeh Bullard, was charged at the Police Court this morning with the theft of £139 9s, the property of Teat and Friar. He was remanded to July 4 on bail, self £3OO ■and one surety of £3OO. AUCKLAND, June 21. Alexander Mulholland pleaded not guilty at the police - court to a charge of assuming the designation of a detective. He approached two men in an hotel and asked for their names and addresses, saying that he was a detective. A constable was called and arrested Mulholand. One of the men admitted that he regarded the incident as a joke at the time, and this was the case for the defence, it being stated that accused was a steady reliable man.

Mr. McKean, S.M., said that the Act did not provide for jokes of this kind. Accused was fined £lO and costs. YOUTH’S THEFTS. PALMERSTON N., June 21. Several week-end episodes were inestigated before Mr Stout S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court this morning. A youth of eighteen. Leslie Joseph Murphy, pleaded guilty to converting o his own use a car valued at over two hundred pounds, entering a shop at Foxton and stealing two portmanteau?: and contents valued at over thirty pounds, also the theft of a stockwhip from a drover.

The police stated that accused was a ward of the State, and employed in Hawke’s Bay. He left Dannevirke on Saturday, secreted in a train wagon, and on arrival at Palmerston North appropriated a car from the public stand and drove to Ran gio tu, where, running short of petrol, he abandoned the vehicle. Proceeding to Foxton, he broke into a store, stealing a portmanteaux and contents. He.slept the night on the premises. The following morning he purloined a jtock whip, while the owner was trucking sheep. Later the accused was apprehended. The charge of breaking and entering was reduced to theft. Accused was sent to the Borstal Institute for three years. On the other charges he was convicted and discharged. GIRL CHARGED. ABANDONS HER BABY. WELLINGTON, June 18. A girl of 19. married to a man 40 years older, but with whom she had never lived, appeared before Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M., to-day, on remand for sentence, on a charge of abandoning her baby on the steps of the Home of Compassion in April. She was dealt with under the Infants Act, the Magistrate ordering her 12 months’ probation.’The child is to remain at the Home of Compasion for two years, the mother paying 6/- a week. The Magistrate said the amount payable by the mother could be reduced when the father was in a position to contribute.