LAW AND POLICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11534, 20 November 1900, Page 7

LAW AND POLICE.

SUPREME COURT.—Ceikhtai Sittings. (Before His Honor Mr. Justice Conolly.) Thb last quarterly criminal sittings, of the "Supreme Court for the present year were opened yesterday before His. Honor Mr. Justice Conolly. ' , .' ' THE GRAND JTJBY. > The following were sworn in on the grand jury:— J. P. Alexander, 8. 0. Brown, D. Caldwell, D. Caley, B. Cashmore, Charles Cooper, D. M. Dingwall, T. Finlayson, R. Frafer, H. Johnston, Alfred H. Jones, Bart. Kent, V. J. Lamer, W. C. Macklow, J. B. Macfarlane, E. Morton, W. J. W. Philson, W. A. Prime, H. S. Ruddock, J. H. Upton, A. C. Whitney. Mr. Upton was elected foreman.. his honor's charge. When addressing the. grand jury His Honor said tho list of indictments was not so long as it had been on some former occasions, but still it was of considerable length: He might pass' over most of the cases of theft and house-breaking, because in almost all of them there was either admission of the offence by the prisoners, or they were found in possession of some of the stolen property soon after the crime. There was one caso which he could hardly understand why it had beon sent to that Court, namely, a case against a man for alleged theft of four bullocks. After dealing with the facts, His Honor said it appeared strange that the committing justices should think it was a case of theft. It appeared to His Honor that if tho prosecutor wanted a remedy, he had it either by bringing a civil action for the recovery ol the money lent, namely, £5, or for possession of the bullocks. In any case it did not appear that it was a case which should have been sent for trial. He was sorry to see that there were no less than five cases where persons had been defrauded of money by the passing of valueless cheques. It was strange that notwithstanding the repeated warnings given from that and other Benches throughout the colony, people should be so careless in taking cheques from nersons that they did not know. It was somewhat unusual to have charges of perjury for trial, but on the present occasion there were no less than four charges. A peculiar case, and a bad one, it seemed to His Honor, was a charge of extorting money by threats of prosecution. The prisoner seemed to have been employed by the police in serving summonses, and by some people he was thought to be a policeman. Ho found the prosecutor riding a horse with a sore back, and threatened to prosecute him. . Prisoner said, " Give me £5 and I will not prosecute you." Prosecutor did give him the £5. His Honor was sorry to see that there were more charges of violence than there should be. One of the gravest charges was an attempt to murder preferred against an old man who shot at his neighbour, one bullet taking effect. There was no question about the act. Immediately afterwards prisoner wrote a long letter statin* that he intended to commit suicide, and he attempted to carry out his threat by taking strychnine. Whether the man was in his right mind it was hard to J say. His Honor was haony to notice that the Legislature had passed a statute which would considerably diminish the labour of grand juries. The extent of the jurisdiction of stipendiary magistrates had been largely j increased, and a great number of cases which formerly had to be sent to the Supreme Court for trial, might now, unless the prisoner demanded a jury, be dealt with summarily. Another matter was that a prisoner could now. in indictable offences (excepting | murder, His Honor thought) plead guilty before the stipendiary maeistrate, and instead of going through the formality of taking evidence in the lower court, the prisoner was simply sent un to the Supreme Court. They must have noticed a number of cases in which the prisoner, having pleaded guilty, the magistrate was still obliged to hear evidence, and then send the case up to the Supreme Court for trial. A lot of time was unnecessarily taken up in hearing the evidence, and the now procedure would also save a great deal of expense. Prisoners who nleaded rmiltv Would simply be sent to the Supreme Court for sentence, and there would be no need for the attendance of any witnesses. It was a very satisfactory improvement in the law.

} ADMITTED TO PROBATION. John Scott, a young man, pleaded guilty to having on September 11, 1900, by day, at Waihi, broken and entered the dwellinghouse of Thomas Lawless, and stolen one watch and chain. A second count charged the prisoner with receiving the stolen articles. Prisoner asked for probation. His Honor said it was a pity to see a strong and able young man like accused, of respectable Pa-entage, standing in the dock upon such a charge. It appeared that nothing was known against him, and His Honor would assume that he had been honest. Prisoner would therefore be admitted to probation for 12 months, on condition that he paid the costs of tho prosecution. Henry Clark, another young man, admitted having on September 11 last, at Coromandel, stolen £5 ss, the property of Reginald E. Brett. The money had been recovered. Taking into account that prisoner was a first offender, the Court admitted him to probation for 12 months, and ordered him to pay the costs of tho prosecution. THEFT. Mary Brown, a very old offender, was sent to Mount Eden for two years upon several charges of theft of umbrellas and rugs. A man named George White, aged about 40, admitted the theft of a watch at Auckland on July 11 last. His Honor, in imposing a sentence of three years' imprisonment, with hard labour, remarked that it was prisoner's 19th conviction for theft in 13 years. BREAKING AND ENTERING. Albert Victor McCuskie, a gumdigger, of middle age, pleaded guilty to having between May 13 and September 24, 1900, by day, at Takapuna, broken and entered the dwelling of John Carter, and stolen a quantity of carpenters' tools' and clothing. His Honor passed a sentence of 18 months with hard labour. VALTJELEBS CHEQUES AND FALSE PRETENCES. Charles Henry King, an elderly man, at present serving a sentence for theft, committed at Wanganui, pleaded guilty to having, at Hamilton, in July last, forged and uttered a cheque and obtained money by false pretences. The amount involved was £5 19s 6d. His Honor imposed a sentence of two years with hard labour. John L. Rees, a man of about 40, was placed in the clock to answer three charges of having obtained money by false pretences at the Thames and Karangahake in April and June, 1897. The total amount involved was £13 s*. for which the prisoner gave cheques, which were afterwards found to be valueless. A plea of not guilty was entered in each instance. The Hon. J. A. Tale prosecuted for the Crown. The effect ol prisoner's explanation of the first chargo Was that at the time ho gave the cheque he believed that he had money in the Dank. It appeared that he was arrested two days before committing the offence upon another charge of having obtained money by false pretences. He was admitted to bail, and then absconded from the colony. Id answer to Mr. Tole, prisoner admitted that he had just served a sentence at Wellington upon two similar charges. The jury found prisoner guilty, whereupon he withdrew his plea of not guilty in respect of the two other charges, and pleaded guilty. His Honor sentenced prisoner to two years' imprisonment upon each charge, the sentences to run concurrently.

A SAD CASE. A boy named Tom Luke Burke, aged 12, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with having on October 19 last, at Tatarariki, Northern Wairoa, with intent to do grievous bodily harm, wounded one William George Ringrose, and, secondly, with having assaulted William George Ringrose, so as to . cause him actual bodily harm. Mr. F. E. Baume appeared for the prisoner. He handed in several letters from well-known people in the neighbourhood of Tatarariki, giving the boy a good character. Counsel also pointed out that at the time the blow was struck the mother of the prisoner was being held down by Ringroso. Constable Nixon Scott, of Aratapu, produced the pocket knife with which the prisohoi struck Ringrose. Ho said he had known the Burke family since they came to the neighbourhood, about two years ago. He had never heard anything against the boy before the present offence. Witness had had complaints about the Ringrose family, who had been rather quarrelsome people. His Honor said it appeared from the depositions that Mrs. Burke had attacked the lad Ringrose first. He could not understand what the trouble was all about. Constable Scott said the only way for the Ringrose children to go to school was by trespassing on the Burkes' property. Mrs. Burke went to chase them away on the day mentioned in the charge, and Ringrose ran to see what was the matter when he hoard screams. His Honoi remarked to counsel that it was very difficult to know what to do with such a case. He thought the prisoner might have been charged with attempting to kill. Mr. Baume said the case had been brought about by the boy interfering to protect his mother. His Honor remarked that he had no right to protect her in that way— by stabbing—unless her life was in clanger. The evidence was to the effect that just before the assault a boy said he would ' do for him. Mr. Baume said there was some doubt as to who had made that remark. It was not

proved that the prisoner had said so. Counsel! asked ■ that probation might be granted. His Honor replied that he could not grant probation in such a case. The boy. must be punished in some way. He was old enougn to know what he was doing. The presumption was that he had said he would ' do lor him." Probation would not be : granted. Prisoner must either be sent to an industrial school or to gaol. After consultation with the prisoner's father, Mr. Baume asked that the boy should. not bo sent tc an industrial school, and suggested that he might be punished in another way. His Honor said it was a very bad affair. It was very fortunate for prisoner that he had not killed the boy Ringrose. Had ho (Ringrose) not been a bigger and stronger boy the knife might have inflicted a mortal wound. Prisoner was old enough to know what he was doing, and he had in fact pleaded guilty to having intended to injure the boy. He (His Honor) would have preferred to send the prisoner to an industrial school, but it was the express wish of the father that he should not do so. He would therefore send tho boy to gaol. A sentence of six months' imprisonment was imposed. DISCHARGED Fl;0M CUSTODY. William Hall, an elderly man, in whose case the grand jury had thrown out a bill for at " tempted suicide at Rotorua, was called before the Court and discharged. Mr. Reed appeared for Hall. " . , , t. i Tewi Kingi, a native, committed or t " aJ upon a charge of cattle stealing at Te Puke, was discharged, the grand jury having thrown out tho bill against him. Mr. Colbeck appeared. i GRAND JTTIIT FINDINGS. The grand jury threw out the bills preferred against William Hall, Tewi Kingi, and returned true bills in all the other cases submitted to them. , lt . _ „ The Court resumes at ten o'clock this morning. i . POLICE COURT NEWS. Mr. H. W. Brabant, S.M., was the presiding magistrate at the Police Court yestciaDrunkenness: Five first offenders were cautioned and discharged. Christina Barsen and Alex. Quinn were each fined 5s or 24 hours in default, and Cornelius Cody, alias Coley, Jean Bohier, Nicholas Heath, Percy Smith, 10s or 48 hours' imprisonment. Another first offending inebriate was ordered to forfeit 10s from his bail, and Walter Harkins, against whom a prohibition order was renewed, was fined 20s or a week's imprisonment. • Alms: For soliciting alms in Queen-street Thomas Barrett was sentenced to one month's hard labour. John McConnell and John Dunn, respectively charged with wandering abroad to beg alms, were remanded till the 24th inst. Breach of the Peace: A youth named Geo. Gamble, alias Campion, was charged with threatening behaviour at St. Heliers Bay. Evidence had been taken on- a previous Court day, but the case was adjourned at defendant's request, in order that the man with whom accused had been fighting might be found. Sub-Inspector Wilson said the police were unable to find the man. His Worship imposed a penalty of 20s and costs 7s.