RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5069, 7 May 1878, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Monday, May 6. (Before R. Bcetham, Esq., E.M.) DRUNKENNESS. John Drummond and John Thomas were charged with this offence, but having been in custody since Saturday night, they were discharged. VAGRANCY. Henry Spence was brought up, charged with vagrancy and being unable to take care of himself. Inspector Scully stated that defendant had frequently been before i the Court on similar charges, and the police did not know what to do with respect to him. His Worship sent him to gaol for six | months. ASSAULT. Denis Shanaghan was again brought up, charged with having assaulted Fergus Oleary, by striking him with a hammer, on the 30fch ult. Inspector Scully informed the Bench that Oleary was rapidly getting better, and he expected he would be able to attend the Court on Monday next. He asked that the case be remanded for a week. The case was accordingly remanded till Monday next. Bail was granted, two sureties of £50 each. IAROENY. John Harde Anderson was charged with larceny as a bailee of £200, the property of Christopher D. Berry, of Gisborne. Mr Lascelles, for the prosecution, asked for a remand till Thursday, which was granted, bail being allowed, two sureties of £200 each. FURIOUS DBIVING. Lawrence Higgins was charged with | having, on the Ist inst., driven a horse i and cart so as to endanger the lives of passengers. 1 Mr Lee appeared for defendant, and I pleaded not guilty. Charles Hambling, express 1 proprietor, deposed that on the evening of the Ist inst. he was driving along the Whiteroad, when he saw a trap coming into town which was being driven very fast. He turned short to let the trap pass him. He then heard a scream, and found it to proceed from a boy who had been in his (Harding's) express, and who said he had been run over by the other trap. The boy's leg was broken by the accident. The defendant had no lights in his trap. By Mr Lee : The boy might have fallen out of his (witness's) trap. He did not see him getting out. Henry Edser gave similar evidence to the above. He was riding in Hambling's express at the time, and stated that the defendant was driving very fast. Inspector Scully stated that, on hearing of the accident to the boy, and getting a description of the horse and cart, he went to Higgins' butcher's shop and saw the defendant there. He asked him if he had just come in with the meat cart, and he said he had. Defendant said he knew nothing about the accident to the boy, and that he was not driving rapidly. Mr Lee, for the defence, submitted that the defendant was not identified at all, no evidence having been brought to prove that it was he who was driving the cart. He called James Aldridge, who deposed that he was at the slaughter-house with defendant on the day in question. Defendant slaughtered a bullock and four sheep for Mr Higgins on that day. There must I have been 17 or 18 cwt. in defendant's cart on that day. He could not have driven more than five or six miles an hour with such a weight. I The defendant also stated that he was not driving faster than five or six miles an hour on the night in question. I His Worship said there was no evidence as to furious driving on the part of defendant, and there was no proof that he I caused the damage to the boy. It was not impossible that the boy might have broken his leg by jumping off the express. He therefore gave defendant the benefit of the doubt, and dismissed the case. Another charge was then brought against Lawrence Higgins for not having lights in his trap on the night of the lsfe inst. Fined 20s, and costs 6s 6d. This was all the business.