MANAIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 December 1924, Page 4

MANAIA.

(From Our Own (Correspondent;) MAGISTRATE’S- COURT. A sitting of the Magistrate’s Court was held at Manaia yesterday before Mr A. M. Mowlem, S.M., when the following cases were dealt with: Judgment .was given by default with costs_ in-, the following civil eases-:, Hi nih^ es v ' Tommy Tutawa, claim £10; J ames Taylor, v; . David . Turner, £l6 10s; ArtS. Kruse v. E. C. Evans, SJS'As;.-; A. J. Hughes v. E. c. Evans,; £9-/ 1< s 9d; H. B. Gibson, v. - Parata Luke,: 10s costs; Cosgrove and Co. v Bert, Lock, £8 Bs.: / Judgment summons cases: W. H. Reynolds v. Rangi Malm, claim; £lO iys 9d. No appearance of; defendant, who was ordered to ; pay the sum forthwith, in default .10 days’ imprison-' ment, the warrant to be suspended for 14 days after the date of service.- W. ?i v - Ashford, claim £4 13s sd.- No appearance, of defendant, who was ordered* to pay the amount within seven days, in default five days’ imprisonment. rt . V" CRIMINAL. Garnett John Clarke, of Manaia, aged 18 years, was faced with two cnarges- of freaking and entering the residence of James.Nairn, schoolmaster, Mamua, on December 19, 1924, and the theft of money amounting to £42.10s lid. As a. result of a plea by accused’s counsel, these were reduced to one of theft,( with the consent of the. police, the Bench stating that this; was done with extreme reluctance, in view of tne apparently premeditated nature of cue crime.

Sergeant Henry f appeared for the police, and’ Mr L. A. Taylor for the accused., To the lesser charge accused pleaded guilty. Constable; Scannell' deposed -.that Nairn had reported to. him that he had hung his trousers with a wallet containing money, £42 10s lid, oil the end of the bed on retiring,. and during the night. his. wife had heard a noise, but had hot been able to wake him, and on donning his trousers on Saturday morning he had found that thq wallet had gone. Constable Scanned was shown some.footprints in a plot of newly-dug ground under the bedroom window, and identified them as made by tennis shoes. Remembering that he had seen accused l late the previous night wearing tennis shoes, he went tc his lodgings, where he found Clarke with his box packed. He twice denied being at Nairn’s, but , when the box was unpacked he saw at once that the tennis shoes were wet- and covered with earth similar to the earth of the plotoutside the bedroom window of Mr Nairn’s residence. "Witness then found the wallet underneath the pillow of accused’s bed and the inoney under the pillow of ,a bed in the same room. Aocused then admitted the offence. James Nairn corroborated the evidence of the last witness. George; Cook and accused’s father gave evidence of the previous good character of accused. The magistrate, after dealing strongly with accused, admitted him to probation for three years, one of'the conditions being that- he .kept out of billiard rooms.

The Bench complimented Constable Scanned on his clever handling of the case, and said that but for his promptitude and cleverness in all probability the money would not have been recovered.