MAGISTERIAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13137, 27 May 1903, Page 5

MAGISTERIAL.

CHRISTCHURCH. Tuesday, May 26. (Before Mr R. Beetbam, S.M.) Obscemb Language. —William Henry Pearson, alias Tip pen, who had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment on the previous day on a charge of being an habitual drunkard, was now further charged with having used obscene language in Colombo Street. After hearing evidence his Worship sentenced the accused to three months’ imprisonment, the sentence to take effect at the expiration of the present term. Oases Agaecst Bootmakers. —T. Butler pleaded not guilty to a charge of having, on April 15, wilfully trespassed on the grounds of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington. Mr Cresswell appeared for- the club and was granted a week’s adjournment to enable him to secure the attendance of witnesses.—William Bright (Mr Cassidy) pleaded nob guilty to a charge of having trespassed on the Plumpton Park Racing and Trotting Club’s ground at Sockburn on May 9. Mr Cresswell appeared for the prosecution, and evidence was taken that the officials of the club had been instructed to warn off undesirable characters. Mr Cassidy, to save time, objected to the information on the ground that it should have been laid by the Piumpton Trotting Club, nob the Piumpton Park Racing and Trotting Club. The objection was upheld, and Mr Cresswell withdrew the charge and was ordered to pay costs.—A similar charge against Robert Martin was withdrawn on the same grounds, plaintiff being ordered to pay costs. —Charles Randall (Mr Byrne) pleaded 1 mot guilty to a charge of having laid tobalisator odds on the result of an event on the programme of the Ashburton Trotting Club, held on May 7. Andrew An demon, a sheepfaxmer, said that on May 7 he was having a drink in the City Hotel When he was induced' by one Keenan to invest £1 with Randall on Cocoanut in the Tinwald Trot. Witness did so, understanding that he would get totalisator odds if he won, The horse won, and witness after calling several times at length received his dividend) £2 Bs. This amount was at the same rate as the money paid out by the totalisator. Thomas Thompson, who had accompanied the last witness; corroborated his statement. Mrs Anderson gave evidence to the effect that she was with her husband at the time that Randall gave him his dividend. He cautioned him not to let on about it. In defence, it was stated' that Anderson had been drinking in the City Hotel, and offered to bet that Cocoanut would win. Afterwards Randall made a straight-out bet with him, at £2 to £l, that Cocoanut would finish neither first nor second. Cocoanut won, and Anderson, appearing to assume that he was entitled to the amount of tho totalisator dividend, announced in the newspaper) asked Randall for that sum, £2 Bs. He was really entitled to £3, the bet having been booked at 2 to 1, but Randal] paid him the amount he demanded. Anderson was "middling” as regarded intoxication at the time the bet was made, and his friend Thompson was intoxicated. Witness had a drink with Anderson, in which Thompson was not allowed to'join, the licensee remarking that he had had enough already, and had been ordered to leave the premises. Had Anderson not been intoxicated he would perhaps have remembered the correct nature of the transaction. Mr Beetham, in giving judgment, said that both Anderson and Thompson had! swom that they could not remember the exact terms of the bet. They had been under the influence of liquor, and their uncertainty on that point lent some colour' to the disreputable defence set up by Randall. There was some doubt in his mind as to the nature of the bet, and tho defendant was entitled to the benefit of that doubt. The case would be dismissed.