POLICE COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 125, 29 May 1893, Page 2

POLICE COURT.

[Before Mr H. Eyro Kenny, BM]

Selina Brown (aged 68) a^d, Violet Jane Brown (a?ed 16) were charged on the information of Cocatable Knapp with feloniously breaking into a plnoe of publio worship at Spring Grove known as the Church of Christ and with stealing out of it tbofol.'owproperty, to the *alue of £10. viz , 1 trunk, 55 tenßpoone, 5 Bibles, 23 hymn book?, 4 library books, 53 tracts, 3 table knives, 22 lamp wicks, 2 t*bleolothf, 15 saucers, 8 small plates, 3 earthenware jugs. 1 glass jug, 19 taacnp?, 1 flour bag, 1 kit. 3 cards of Jaoe, 2 F^rfar apronp, . 1 pair Indies' dnwere, 2 chemiscß, 15 reels of cottoD, 1 thimble 1 p^ir sc!B?ors, 1 bu die of tapo. 5 pinaforrs rnidu np, 2 pinafores unmnde, 2 ohildrnns c chemises, 1 emp!y bottle, and sundry other goods

S rgt.-Majnr Pratt conducted the proceedings. After brieflly opening ho oil.'eJ the following 1 evidence: —

■>■ •;£ohn Griffith sa'.d.he Wis a' platelayer on 'fchfc-'-'NthAu lailway, aud he was living at Spring l*rovi\ He was n mrmber of the Church of Christ at Spring Grov?. The property of the Church was vested in trustee?. The property was vested by deed. Witness nnl Mr ilarty Batt were thfi trustees. Oa the 22nd of May he was in thn o*iurcb. He left the church about eight o'clock. One person thru in court was present with him, viz., Mis Boddington. He wa? the last to have the building. He looked the doer before he left. The windows were fastened by pprinEf fastenings. He had not been ineide the Church eioce. In the windows only the top s'ssh was movable ; the bottom one was a fixture. He could identify the property lef c in the church. He identified a map of Palestine (produced) ; it was in the veetry. He identified two Bible 3 (produced). In one Bible there was an insoription written by Mr Thomas Bate?. He identified the 23 hymu books producel. They were marked nnd stamped inside with the mark of the churoh. The three Bmill Bibles (produced) were such aa wero use! in the churoh. (Witness be c wont on to identify a number of the goods produced. H • c^uld not indentify all tho goods, but ttnse which were not iodentified were similar to the gojuls us'id ia the Church. He could not siy anything about the trunk or about ths oJothing). He consid'T<.d the < value of the property from £9 It £ ID. He i being on» of the trustees was the owner r>f ] the properly. He knew tho two ncoused persona. They bad not visited the Cbnicb lately to his knowledge. The younger one went sometimes tithe Chapel yard to get. wat^r. There vas a dwelliog house about fifty yarda from the church.

Eliz* Arm Be d Hagtoa said thai nhe was living afc Spring firove. She waa the wile of Mr Robert Boddingt^D. She was a member of the Church of Chrisl »t Spring O:ovr. She remeinbmiJ MonrJny last the 2'2u iit ft. She wi\b iv the church on that .1 -.y. Ii wj« in the evening. She left the uliuruh abuut 8 o'clock. There were several p r.oia ia the churoh. Mr Griffith, the last wiluei-', locked the door, On the Sunday

evening, the 21«t insr, tnnv hfid looked at the windows find found t'em nil secure. Witness identified the clothine vrodnced. She knew that all the artiolfß identified by list witness were in the church on the 22nd inaf. On tho 25' h inst sh« went to the church between 2 and 3 o'clock in the aftrrnoon. Th^ro were four persons bald? herself. When sh^ went on° window was down from the top. It was not left liko th.twhfn she left the church on rhe 22-d inst. Witness btw mud on the window-sill and there was mnd on the forma underneath the window. Oie of the pa^es of g\vs w.s broken Tiv broken pane wnß one of the top ones. Thst pine was not broken «n tha Mir.day. Directly they got into the church they could see that things had bee>i taken away. The crookery wa* nlways kept in n cupb~ard in the I vetry. She lo ked for the ppoonp, they had only be°n lately p ircliased. They were gone. The articles of clothiog were k"pb in the box pro Jno d. She had eeen the two prisoners at ohurc\ Thi young girl sometimes :<t^etd-"d Sunday roho^l. It was about a month since eho was tare listSho would k-«ow where tho ortioles stolen were kopfc, She hipp?ncd to ome to the o'iuroh the diy aftrr the last tea pirty when thpy were clearing tip. Witness ard tha others went and told Mrs Griffith* tint th<! things hal (rone. She was with Con-st^^l.-a Phair and Knapp wheji they pearohei Mr 3 Brown's honso. Sbo identified the property for th» police. It wa«i tho anme ns wa? prodnoed in 0 urt. O ily the sowin? was in the trnnk. Mrs Brown brought aU the other things from all pnrts of the h)us-. The Biblfl ond hroksjsvere in a b^x in Mrs Brown's bedroom. Mrs Brown told witness that her grand » daughter hid brought the art : oles to hhr,e r , and h».d told her that sho had picked tbem up on the r ad. By h^r grand«diu|hter she meant the yonnfK'r priaoner. By the Court: When they left the Church on the Monday evening the 22nd of May, the windows seemed to be in the same condilion as they left them on the ptevious evening. None of the windows were opened on the Monday.

Alice Boddington said she was the daughter of the last witness. She remembered the 25th of Mr.y. She was at the chapel on that day She went there about two o'clock in the afternoon. She went into the church alone. When she got into it she naw that all the things were gone: One window was down and one was broken She locked up the chapel and told Miss McGowan Witness and Miss McGowan returned to the church They then went up and told Mrs Boddington. She then went up and told Mrs Griffiths. She told a number of people about the church being robbed and the window being broken Witness had seen the articles produced in the church. She had seen the trunk ' proj duced) in the church. Witness noticed both on the window sill outside, and on. the seat inside mud. It had been raining, and footprints might have been washed out. Const ible Knapp said that on Thursday list the breaking into and theft from the Ohuroh of Christ whb reported to him. He examined the churoh oc the outside. One of the window panes was broken, and the top sash of oieof the windows dow°. He noticed some footprints upon the window sill outside, nnde app\r. nfcly by some person without a>y boots. The ground outside the window was considerably disturbed by footmirks. A trestle had been plioed again Bt the wicdiw whioh wai down, so that one oould easily step over the sash aid enter the building. The front window was broken, but the cash was tight and oould not begot down. After miking some inquiries he applied to the nearest Justice for a seatoh warrant. He searched the premises Of Mrs Selina Br>wn with Constable Phair. Mrs Brown was in the house by herself when they went to search. Mrs Brown said that she had heard something about the robbery the evening before from a Mrs Maule. Witness told her he had a search warrant. He did not read it because the accused said "I have got some things here which the girl ha 3 picked upon the road. You can see them if youiike." Constable Phair, witness, and Mrs Boddington then accompanied accused into another room. There they saw the trunk (produced) locked and two table cloths, a white one and a green one with a yellow border. Mrs Boddington identified them. Accused produced a number ,of articles. She went to a cupboard and said ' Let me come, I will find all you want.'" He asked her about the spoons, and she brought them from another room wrapped up in paper. Witness then went to arrest the younger accused In the|meantime Constable Phair got possession of a rniin|M|^oth£rt^M|^^tained from Mrs the girl she said Q|MlHJH|^JHHpilH>out it " He told her what ncr granumutiier had said aud she then started to cry, and said she bad picked them up on the ro d. Th* younger prisoner t-toutly denird thot she had got into the Cbnroh When witness first saw- Mrs Brown she said that there was a trap gding along the road with some people in it, and her grand-daughter brought in the trunk and said it hid dropped from the trap. Airs Brown said that another trap went along nn che said to her grand-dau?hter you hive done so well you had better see if they (ny tiling theoooupants of the last trap) had dropped anything, and sure enough she brought in coma more thing?, crockery. The box and the go^da were the sime as witness rfoeived from Mrs Brown. By tbe Court :— Mrs Brown's husband ban not lived with the accnged for years. No other grown np person has been living in the house oooupied by Mrs Brov/n for some time past. Mrs Brown said to witness : Havoyou ever known me to be dishonest before ? 'to whioh witness rsplied I never knew you ti be aocused before of any dishonesty, By the Conrfc :— When be arrested Web Brown he told* her what the ohxrge was. She said " I never went into the Churob.'.' Then witness paid to her your grand mother s \ys you brought the goods home and caid you h'd picked th^m up on the road. She said •' I picked them up on the road, bat I never went info tbe Church." Bhe then began to cry. No conversation took plaae befewen the witness and the girl ia Mra Brown's presence. Constable Phair siid that he went to Spring Grove oi S tnrday last to a'si^t /O unstable Knapp to exeoate a seatoh warrant. When ho and Constable Knanp arrived at Mrs Browti'a house Constable Kaipp ia« formed her thnt bo had a search wnrrant to search her house for cert. in go ds t>ken from the Churoh of Christ at Spring Grove. The eldest prisoner said she hid heard somothinjr about it from Blis Miule. After reading a portion of the sra r ch wnrrant to her she said she had sonn goods inside whioh the girl (meaning the younger prisoner hid picked upon the road betweei 11 a:d 12 on Wednesday forenoon. She nsked them ti go inside and see them. They went inside into a bick bedroom in which stiod

the box now produced. The box was looked The two table olothe (produced) were ia the same room. Jin B>ddisgton oame in nnd identified the g-iods aa belonging to the church. O)nstab!e Knapp informed the elder pr'sonpr that there were several ether articles mis-ing, and from other parts of the bouse she brought all the various a-tiolos (it p-esent exhibited in Court. 0 nstabli Knapp was not present when all the good 3 were brought iv. He went aad arrested the younger prisoner. He Rhortly aftflrw.irda returned with her. Ho heard the o'd-st prisoner siy that a l:a.) had pissed nlong the rood and tlnrtly nftenv rds tlio piil had dragged tho box now produced into the hous". The occupintfl of the trap sh<s b?licved wero townspeople, and lh»y eeemed slightly v: d-.T tho ii fluence of drink. Shortly afterwards another trap p-s^ed, and she told the girl to go out agaio. The g'rl we: t out again, and returned with cookery a:.d two Biblea. She paid, You can s v< by the mark* on the Bible 3 tlr-t th/y have been lying in the mod on t'e road. ConBtible Knapp a-jd wit'icaa forcrd the box open nnd found somo of the goods in tho boXi The elder prisoner seemed well aware where the goods w>re. While waiting for the prisoners to get ready to come into town he heard the younger prisoner say to the elder one, "It I had n t found the goods they would not have discovered them bo eapily." The old prisoner replied, • Quite true wenoh." The e'der prißiner did not explain how the crockery wes not broken by being dropped frcm a trip. In answer to the usual charge the elder prisoner said that the things were brought into the house at five different times. The last time was about four o'clock on the afternoon of the 24th of May. The first thine that was brought in the house was the large Bible with two writings in it. »Sl)e put the different articles into different places She would not do a wrong to any one. She did not know who the things belonged to. If she had known they had belonged to the chapel she would have returned them. The box was brought in the last time !>ut ouu. She saw the girl dragging the box down the side of the road. .Slie never knew where the girl got it from. ! Her granddaughter had brought the tilings ! iato her house. She asked her grat.ddaughter whereabouts she had, picked them up. Violet Jane Brown, ia answer to the obnrjr«>, sifd she had picked up the artioJes in font lots between the cross lane and Mr Wifttt'w gt\te ; one lot »he picked up down the {&•«•, n<ftc Blr Winte r s v \r?. His Worship committed both prisoners to take their trial at the next sittings of the Sipreuie Court on the charges preferred. Ilia Worship fixed the biil of each prisoner at £20 each, and two suretUß (for each prisoner; of £10 each,