RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5373, 5 May 1879, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Saturday, May 3. (Before H. Eyro Kenny, Esq., R.M.) ' DRUNKENNESS. Frederick Wilson was fined 5s for this offence. ' • arson. '■■ Patrick Leahy, a journeyman carpenter, was brought up, charged with having, on the 24th April, maliciously set fire to the Napier public school building. Mr Cornford appeared for the defendant, who pleaded not guilty.- - : . Inspector Scully said he would ask for a remand till Wednesday next,' in order to get up the evidence. Mr Cornford said he hoped his Wor-

ship would allow, bail. ' : J*."- <..; .. Hia Worship aaid he should^ require, '■• heavy bail, as the offence with which'the "!^- --accused was charged was a very serious „i one. He would take two sureties.of £100 '„. . each. The requisite bail was afterwards ■ found for the accused. .::<■, ' ■ LARCENY.'- • • '' : • '■•' ; Elizabeth Franklin was charged with having stolen a cheque for £2 12s, the , property of Richard Vance. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. - Louis Watts deposed: I am agent for the Union Steam Shipping Company at Port Ahuriri. Ido not know the prisoner, f. know Mr and Mrs Vance. I have been lodging at their house. On the 28th of last month I gave Mrs Vance a cheque for £2 12s. The cheque was No. 33, --4 on the Union Bank of Australia, Port Ahuriri. I gave the cheque for board and. residence. The cheque produced, is the ; one I gave. In. consequence of something I heard I stopped the cheque at the bank on Tuesday, the 29th. Dora Vance deposed : lam the wife of Richard Vance. I do not know the prisoner. I know the last witness. I received a cheque (produced) from him for £2 12s on Monday, the 28th April. The cheque was for board and residence. I gave the cheque to my servant, Sarah Jane Stewart, on Tuesday, the 29th. - 1 gave it to her to pay- an account to Mr Vautier at the Spit. She returned in about two hours, and said she had lost the cheque. I told her to go to Mr Watts, , and to ask him to stop payment of the. cheque. I did not see the cheque again till the present time. . , .

By prisoner : Sarah Jane Stewart said she believed she lost the cheque at your place.

Sarah Jane Stewart deposed: I am servant to Mrs Vance, living on Milton Terrace. I have known prisoner for a little while. I received a cheque from Mrs Vance, to pay an account to Mr Vantier. The cheque produced is the one. I went straight to Mr Vautier's, but he was not in. I went then to my mother's, I had the cheque at my father's house. I then went to Mra Franklin's house, and from there to Vautier's again. As soon as I got to Vautior's door I missed the cheque. I went back to Mrs Franklin's and asked her if slie had picked up a cheque, mi had lost one. Sho said no, that if: she had found it she would have given it to me. I went home and told Mrs Vance that I had lost the cheque. [ did not see the cheque again till Major Scully showed it to me just now in Court.

£y prisoner : You told me to tell Mrs Vance about the cheque, and then to ad» vertise it in the paper ne^t rooming.

Eliza Jane Gollop deposed : I am the wife of William Henry Gollop, proprietor of the Commercial Hotel, Spit. I have seen the prisoner before. On Wednesday, the 30th April, Mrs Franklin's little girl came to me with a cheque rolled up in a handkerchief. It was in the forenoon. The child asked me for two shilling's worth of port wine. I put it in the bottle for her. She handed me a handkerchief with the cheque produced rolled up in the comer of it I gave her £2 10s in change; two notes, and ten shillings' worth of silver. I gave the cheque to Mf Gollop. I afterwards took the cheque over to Mrs Franklin's and told her that the cheque she had sent by the little girl was stopped at the bank. . Mrs Franklin said that it was not stopped, 'and I said, " Yes, it is," pointing out to her the baok of the cheque where it was marked. I asked her where she got the' cheque. "■' She said, "Never mind, I'll make it all right." , I asked her could sho fihf me have the money. She said she 'would in half-an-hour. She asked me for the cheque, but I did not give it to her. I gave the cheque to Constable Strudwick. Mrs Franklin came over to my house the same evening and asked me what about the cheque-. I said I had given it to the police. She said, "How do you know it's my little girl V I said that I knew her little girl well, as she often came to the house. IBy prisoner: I did not . give . you the cheque. You asked me for it, but Irefused to give it. . ; ■ Prisoner : I can prove by my own two children that I had the cheque in my hand. " i William Henry Gollop/ hotelkeeper, der posed : I have seen vMrs Franklin before. I -took a cheque for £2 12a on the Ist irist. to the Union Bank of Australia at the Stot, signed Louia Watts; I was refused payment of it. The" cheque produced is the one. ; 'Constable Strudwick deposed: I made ani application for a warrant in consequence of information I received. I arrested the prisoner on warrant, charged with the larceny of a cheque for £2 12s. I receiyed the cheque produced on Thursday afternoon from Mrs Gollop. On arresting, the prisoner, she at first denied all' knowledge of it, and that as for her children changing a cheque, they had not been outside of the house all day. She said, " Could not anybody else have Bent them as well as me ?" She then said that Louis Watts had. given her eldest son the cheque, and her son then went and stopped it, rafter it was lost. I saw the son on the way to the lock-up. He said he ha&received a note from Mr Watts to Btop payment of the cheque. The son, I should my, is about 14 years old. He said he knew nothing further about the cheque. '"' By prisoner : You did tell me you knew nothing about the cheque, and that your children had not been out all thatdayV' .Louis Watts (re-called) : I never saw the prisoner, to my knowledge, before. I did ,.no % t s; givQ. a cheque to her or any member of her family. A boy of hers did not come to me about it, nor did I give him any authority to stop the cheque. A small' boy who was working at Boyd's came in and I asked him if he would take the note to stop the cheque. He did not know what the note was about. ■ That closed the case for the prosecution. > The' prisoner said she had not brought atiy witnesses with her, as she did not think- they would be required. As for the cheque, she knew nothing at all about it, and had never seen it. t 'liis:Worsbipsaidhe was sorry that it was his duty to convict the prisoner of the.; offence. He thought there was no doubt whatever that she had sent her little girl for th'i wine on the day in ques-tion-with the stolen cheque. He then asked, the Inspector what the previous oharadter of the prisoner was. Inspector Scully said she had never been before the Court on any previous charge. 1 She was, however, separated from her husband at present, and he was sorry^tq pay he could not give a very good account of her conduct lately. His Worship said he would make one allowance for prisoner — it was one which was commonly enough supposed, that a person- finding and appropriating what was not ' their property was not guilty of larceny. ! He wished to correct this impression, as the larceny in such a case was all 1 the same. He would sentence the prisoner to what, under the circumstances, was. a:very light punishment. She would be" imprisoned for fourteen days, with hard labor. There was no other business.