MAGISTRATE'S COURT.—Saturday.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 212, 18 July 1864, Page 4

MAGISTRATE'S COURT.—Saturday.

(Before Thomas Beckham, Esq., Tx.M.) assault! George Henry Cleveland was charged try his wife Sarah Jane Cleveland with assault. Sarah Jane Cleveland being sworn, said : My husband's name is George Henry Cleveland. Prisoner is my husband. Yesterday,' the first tiling in the morning, he kicked me in the face. He then threatened he would split my head with an axe. I then dressed myself as quickly as possible and left the house. My fear of him is so great that I dare not live with him. Ho struck anri kicked mo tho day before. Sometimes he is drunk for a whole week, I bear the marks of his violence on my face. lie kicked mo on tho chin, making the inside of my mouth bleed. Had it, not been for my children, I should have been murdered before. ' The prisoner expressed regret. The Court decided that he should llnd two sureties of £50 each to keep the peace for six months, or be committed to gaol. »Iti:.VKAHI)K. . Edward Martin, out, on bail; Joseph f'olsnn, out on bail , John McLean, out on bail • Ifawley, and John Parks, each lined 20s. and costs. desertion- and disojiediexce. Alexander Phillips and John Gordon, seamen of the Black Diamond* brig, were charged bv Captain Haves with being absent from thoir ship without leave, but as the captain did not wish to press the charge, the men were not punished. Thomas Trusty, George Robinson, and Gilbert Cooper were charged by W. Fraxer, captain of the barque 1 Gabalva,' with insubordination. The prisoners admitted that they wore guilty but that the captain had burst into tho forecastle where they wore .asleep, and had demanded the clothes of two men who had previously deserted, and accused them of stealing the dothes. He had then threatened to have their lives. Misconduct coming after the ill-treatment they had experienced during the voyage out had induced them to disobey orders, so that they might have an opportunity of explaining their case in Court. Tho captain was quite' capable of shooting them, as he had fired at two men leaving the ship the day before. ™l W fl Fl iT; r ' , capt "'' :n ° f the fcwiue, said that he only fired blank cartridges to induce the men to come back, who wore running away with a ship's boat. to W ] lon w (; mato M'deved the men to go to work, they refused to work any more '• SW tt P 'TTV, T ho mat ® clid n '* Bi »S out ohoot thorn dead, Captain !" He had never threat- I

-med the men, but he hid : said that if any move of them stole a boat and went a way, he would fire at them with ball cartridges. He had great trouble ■ with tho men, who were mutinous and in: o lent. I' io Court asked the men individually if they wer willing to return to work, and uj>ou their refusing, sentenced them each to fair weeks imprisonment with hard labour.