RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1554, 21 December 1866, Page 4

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Thursday, Djscembeb 20th. (Before the Hon. A. R. C. Strode, R.M.) Vagrancy.—John Langmuir Smith was brought up under the Vagrant Act; charged with having no visible means of support. Mr Thomson, of the Detective Office, stated, that after his discharge from custody, on acquittal by the jury in the Supreme Court, where he had been tried for breaking into the store of W. D. Sutherland, the prisoner had gone to a number of hotels, and representing himself as a station-holder at the Poraahaka,' had obtained board and drinks, and, on the same pretence, had ordered goods from several storekeepers. : In some of the hotels he had entered the bare in the morning, and helped himself to drink out of the casks, leaving the taps running. He had apparently no means or intention of paying. the debts thus incurred: Smith addressed some rambling statement to the Bench, and seemed to be violently agitated, but desisted on Mr Thomson stating that his speech and manner were altogether assumed. Mr Ward, Solicitor, gave evidence as to false pretences, which the prisoner had made to him, as to his means and his fear of loss of his situation with Messrs Douglas, Aldereon and Co.; in consequence of which pretences, Mr Kidston had for him (Mr Ward) been induced to undertake his defence in the Supreme Court. In reply to a question from the Bench, the prisoner said he was * manager on a station at the Pomahaka, but Mr Thomson said the statement was quite un» true. The Magistrate said the prisoner was undoubtedly a "loafer" of 'the worst class, in whose assumed madness"there was a great deal of method ; and sentenced him to six weeks' hard labor. Theft.—John Brown was charged with stealing a pair of boots and ara2or, the property of William Skinner, shipwright, from a workshop on the reclaimed ground. The complainant had seen the prisoner about the premises ; and, subsequently, when re met him near the Gold Office, identified a pair- of boots which he was wearing as. his (complainant's) property. He informed the police, and in a hut occupied by the prisoner was found a razor, which had also been abstracted, with some other articles not found, from a clothes-bag, which the defendant had in his workshop.—Mr Thomson said the prisoner was a well-known thief, and had already undergone two periods of imprisonment for similar offences.—The Magistrate ordered him a further period of six months' imprisonment and hard labor. i • Tkespass.—E. B. Cargill, for allowing three bead of cattle to stray on the public road, was fined 2s per head" with costs; and Thomas Everett, for allowing two horses,to stray, was fined the same amount, with costs..