RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT,

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1020, 6 February 1869, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT,

Tuesday, Febbuaby. 2. [Before John Curling, Esq., B,M.] Drunkenness. — Richard Atkins was fined ss. for being drunk. Fine paid. Breach of Slaughter Souse Act.<—Mi» cbael Baldwin appeared to answer a charge brought against himself and partner, John" ■ Higgins, by Gavin Peacock, / Inspector of Slaughter Houses, for having, without license, slaughtered sheep at Waitangi on the 29tli January. Gavin Peacock, oa oath, deposed :— "I am Inspector of Slaugh-ter-houses. On Friday last I went to the defendants' paddocks at Waitangi, and saw them kill a sheep. They had no license for doing so." The charge was admitted by Mr. Cuff on the part of defendants, but he said it was impossible for all the butchers to kill at the Slaughter House on Fridays, as there was not sufficient accommodation. They had paid the fee of 3d. per head to the person who rented the Slaughter House.— Fined £1, and costs Bs. Vagrancy. — John Stevens was charged, under the provisions of this Act, with being found by night, without lawful excuse, in the Settlers' Hotel. Florence Sullivan, on oath, deposed: — "I keep the Settlers' Hotel. About two this morning my wife aroused me, and said she had heard some one in the private parlour below. I went down and found the prisoner under the ' table. He had effected an entrance by cutting a piece of string wKich iMd the^ "' which would not close on account iof the wet. I had secured it before going 'to bed." Prisoner (who is said to have walked overland from Wanganui) said he was drunk at the time, and did not remember breaking into the house, but he supposed he had gone there for a bed. Sentenced to three months' imprisonment, with hard labor. • • Juvenile Depravity. — A boy named George Graham was charged with stealing fruit from the premises of Major Green, Goldsmith Road, contrary to the provisions of the Larceny Act, 1868. E. L. Green, on oath, deposed:— "On the morning of Sunday last, I was informed that half-a-dozen boys were in my orchard, stealing fruit. I sent my servant round one side of the garden, and I went the other side myself. I saw some boys stealing the fruit. I caught three of them and locked them up in a room in my house. The prisoner, who I subsequently found was the leader of the party, gave my servant chase allroundOnepoto and escaped. The parents of the boys whom I had locked up came down during the day and chastised them, when I let them go. The prisoner knew the run of the place, as I had given his parents permission to live in my house, before I occupied it, for the purpose of taking care of it. They have done great damage to the trees by breaking the branches ; they also broke the fence, by which the goats had got in." The prisoner, who was a little fellow as high as the bar, said that young Macarthy had told them to go and get the fruit. The Magistrate said that it was very difficult to catch boys who robbed persons' gardens, and that, when they were caught, they must be punished. He would send the prisoner to gaol for six hours, and order him to be once privately whipped ; and he hoped the sentence would be a caution to others of a like propensity. The prisoner, who seemed very hardened, was then removed.