NEW INSOLVENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 719, 9 September 1865, Page 9

NEW INSOLVENTS.

(PIEST HEARINGS FIXED FOB THE 2ND OCT.) Thomas Francis Roskruge, storekeeper, Tokomairiro. — Debts, L2Ol 3s ; assets, L 10; deficiency, Ll9l 3a. Causes of insolvency : The award of the arbitrators between Mr John Dyer and the petitioner, whereby he was declared to be indebted in the sura of L 143 4s. Howorth, Barton and Howorth, Dunedin, solicitors. Petition filed Ist September. William Henry Bennett, miner, Tim-

ber Gully, Lammerlaw, Waipori. — Debts, LB6 6s lOd; assets, Ll ; deficiency, LBS 6s lOd. Causes of insolvency: The severity of the weather preventing him from carrying on mining operations ; and pressure of creditors. Petition filed Ist September. Hector Baxter, Shipbroker and Accountant, Dunedin. Debts due by the petitioner and his partner, L 640 7s 6d. Assets — debts due to the petitioner and his partner, Ll9l 6s lOd; value of real and personal estate on partnership account, L 347 9s 8d ; value of the petitioner's personal estate, LlO ; total, L 548 16s 6d. Deficiency, L9l 11s 6d. Causes of insolvency — Losses in the shipping trade between Hokitika and Dunedin, owing to the delay of the ketch Traveller's Bride from adverse winds and boisterous weather; from pressure of creditors generally ; and through the prolonged absence of his partner. E. F. Ward, Dunedin, solicitor. Petition filed 2od inst. Thomas Stanbrook, miner, Manuherika.—Debts, L 213 13s 7d; assets, LlO; deficiency, 1,203 13s 7d. Causes of insolvency — Pressure of creditors, losses from bad debts, and bad luck in mining operations, arising from bad weather and other causes. E. F. Ward, Dunedin, solicitor. Petition filed 2nd inst. William Key and Henry Berwick, upholsterers, Dunedin. Debts, Lll6O 4s 3d ; assets, L 972 6s 4d ; deficiency, LlB7 17s lid. Causes of insolvency : Pressure of creditors, inability to collect their accounts, losses by bad debts, great depression in trade, and fear of arrest. M. V. Hodge, Dunedin, solicitor. Petition filed sth inst. (Previous to the filing of this petition, compulsory sequestration of the estate had been ordered by the Judge on the petition and affidavits of William Hepburn and John Davie, creditors in this estate.) Edward Jacob Jonbs and Solomon" Jacobs, drapers, Dunedin. Compulsory I sequestration of the estate granted to Wolff Harris (Bin?, Harris and Co.) and John Alexander Ewen (Sargood and Co.) Charles Nyullasy, publican, late of Invercargill, now of Dunedin. Debts, L 271 8s lOd; assets, L46B Ils2d: surplus, L 197 2s 4d. Causes of insolvency: Depreciation in the value of his property in Invercargill, which cost him in 1863 the sum of L 1450 0s 6d, and which is now only worth L 350, if a purchaser could be obtained ; general depression of trade ; losses, and an inability to meet his business requirements and pay rent for his business premise*. E. F. Ward, Dunedin, solicitor, Petition filed 6th instant. Cunningham Greig Botd, publican, Dunedin. Debts, L 357 14s; assets, L 66 16s: deficiency, L 290 18s. Causes of insolvency : The Licensing Bench at Dunedin refusing to grant the petitioner a license for the Spread Eagle Hotel, in Maclaggan street, on the ground that he could not hold two public-house licences at one time, in consequence of which refusal he was saddled with the rent of that hotel, without being able to derive any benefit therefrom, the premises being totally unfit for any other business; the permission accorded to the petitioner by His Worship Mr Strode to have music and singing in his licensed house,~known as Boyd's Arcade Hotel, having been withdrawn, after he' hadejone to great expense; in, fitting up a c«ncert hall. B. C. Haggitt, Dunedin, solicitor. Petition filed 6th inst.

would be relieved from so milch of the mortgage money. The effect, if this particular property had been destroyed, probably would have been, that Mr Mackenzie would have been paid the L 700; that the prisoner would have been relieved from the payn ent- of irrerf^f on c o mnrh of the mortgage momy : and that he would have been deprived of rents from the propery. But, if rent* were not corning in will, the prisoner might have been advantaged by losing them, if he also escaped so much of interest. There was greater probability of the prisoner being benefited in the case of the other property, if it had been destroyed without question ; and that was, no doubt, the reason why the Crown was fo anxious to give secondary evidence as to the lost policy for LI 50 in the prisoner's own name. It was peculiarly the duty of the Judge to make clear the evidence where the proofs were complicated ; and he was simply discharging that duty in what he had said. So much as to the question of possible intent : it was for the jury to consider whether a sufficient motive had been shown. The principal part of the proofs on which they should fix their minds, was the evidence that the prisoner was the person last in the house. No attempt had been made by Mr Wilson to suggest any other person as the offender ; but it was not necessary to an acquittal that the prisoner's counsel should do that, and, often, it would be very wrong to attempt it. The prisoner would be entitled to acquittal, if the proof given by the witnesse s was not sufficient to convict him. There had been no suggestion that Mrs Rouse had any hand in this matter ; and he must say that there was no evidence whatever to warrant an idea of such a thing. As to the evidence given, he would would say, generally, that there was nothing to make its credibility questionable ; it seemed to him to have been all very fairly piven, without any desire to keep back facts or to make them press heavily against the prisoner. His Honor read the evidence of all the witnesses except those called with respect to documents, and he commented upon it. That the prisoner did not shut the door after him, when he was seen to enter the house, was a circumstance to be noted in his favor ; but the evidence of Sutton showed that the inner door screened the corner of the room in which the preparations for incendiarism were made by somebody. If there was reason to suppose that a larger sum would be paid on the destruction of the property than the property was worth, the fact of the mortgage had nothing to say to the matter heie ; because the mortgage was a debt, from a portion of which the prisoner would be thus relieved. It was common to suppose, and to say, that the temptation to the class of persons likely to commit arson was less, perhaps, in such a case, than it would be where ready cash was to be touched ; but supposing that those houses were not really bringing in, as rent, an amount which was equivalent to the interest on L7OO, it would be better to have the L7OO, even if it went into the hands of the mortgagee, because it would relieve the prisoner from interest, as well as from that amount of the mortgagemoney. Long as the case bad necessarily been, the two points for the consideration of the jury really lay in a nut shell. The preparations being such as to carry conviction to every mind, that incendiarism was intended by some person, the question was, whether the prisoner was that person ; and the force of the evidence against him was so much as it tended to show that he was the last person in the house, and that he left it locked up.

The Jury, after an absence of a little more than half an hour, returned with a verdict of— Guilty.

In reply to the usual question, the Prisoner said that he was 30 years old ; and, being challenged why sentence should not be passed on him, be said — I hope your Honor will take into consideration that I have been in prison now five months ; that, up to the present time, I have always borne a good character, and I have been in the colonies upwards of ten years. lam a married man. My wife, for the past 12 months, has been lost to all reason ; but she has recovered sufficiently \ to comprehend my position ; and I fear that the sentence passed upon me will drive her back again to her lost state. I have aged parents, who are now, I may say, on the brink of eternity, and who only wait your sentence on me to crush them into the grave; or, perhaps, they might have hopes, if that sentence was a light one,' to see me once more. I have nothing more to say, except' that it has been a case of circumstantial evidence against me, altogether. The Judge : Prisoner, John Riordan, it is certainly an afflicting thing, even to the Judge who tries you, to hear your state ment of the misery that your sentence will inflict upon innocent persons. I cannot, however, allow that fact to interfere with the arm of the law. The considerations you have now urged, should have ■weighed with you to prevent the commis s on of the act for which you Btand there.