FISH CEMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1163, 15 June 1894, Page 38

FISH CEMENT.

- The charges against the brothers Thomas and James Eastwood of conspiring with another man named Butterley, not in custody, to defraud, were investigated by Mr Martin, S.M., on Tuesday. A great deal of evidence was taken, showing that tho practice of the accused, as already reported in the Times, was for one of them to represent himself to shopkeepers as requiring a large quantity of " fish cement/' and for the other to come along some time afterwards with some for sale. In some cases the unsuspecting shopkeeper purchased a quantity from him, which, of course, was never again enquired for by the first-comer. Susan Jane Feek, who keeps a shop in Courtenay place, purchased seven dozen bottles of the cement, for which she paid 15s in cash and 23s worth •of groceries. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Richard Edwards, storekeeper, Adelaide road, bought eight dozen bottles for .£3, but got a deposit of 10s from one of the accused. Alfred Arthur Landall, grocer, of Hopper street, was also tempted, but refused to deal. Mark Everton, grocer, of Wordsworth street, was even more fortunate still. His wife, Kate Everton, purchased half a dozen bottles from one of tho accused, for 3s 9d, and sold them to the other man at a profit of Is 6d. Eastwood No. 2 then left with her a deposit of 10s to induce her, it was alleged, to purchase a large quantity of the cement for him. Meantime, however, her husband came home, and he, having heard of the device practised by the men, not only refused to buy any, but when the other man come along to see if the cement had been obtained for him, turned him out of the shop and kept the 10s deposit. Evidence was also given to the effect that James Eastwood and another man, supposed to be Butterley, engaged a room at a lodging-house in Taranaki street, where Thomas Eastwood was a frequent visitor, and where they used a "billy" for boiling glue. Both the accused, for whom Mr Skerrett and Mr Poynton appeared, were committed for trial, bail being fixed at two sureties each of X35-'