THE SEALSKINS PROSECUTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1933, 25 February 1892, Page 21

THE SEALSKINS PROSECUTIONS.

Invercargili,, February 18. In the Supreme Courb yesterday Andrew Newton was put on his trial for a second time for the larceny of a number of sealskins, the property of Joseph Hatch. Considerable interest was taken in the trial, as accused was the ringleader, and disposed of the skins for the others. Until yesterday he maintained that he only got 18s each for the skins, but now admitted that he got 20s apiece and pocketed the difference, the receipt he gave showing only 18s. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, but sentence was postpoued until the legal points reserved have been decided by the Appeal Court. Mr Solomon, who defended, strove hard to get excluded from the jury those persons who had tried the previous cases, but the authorities were against him, and the persons he objected to were included.

The famous sealskin cases were finished to-day, Hatch being successful all along the line. This afternoon the jury in his civil action against G. R. Waddel and Jas. Roberts of the Bluff, for wrongful conversion of skins, for the larceny of which the sealers were convicted, returned a verdict for L 775, or L 3 per skin, less 10 per cont. charges for sending Home. Judgment, as in the larceny cases, was subject to the decision of the Court of Appeal on law points reserved by Mr Justice Williams. It came out in evidence that Waddel, who also scut a vessel sealing, and Hatch

had agreed that the price to be paid to sealers should be 15s, but defendants had paid 20s to Hatch's meu for skins. His Honor, summing up, said if the evidence of Printz as to the difficulty of discriminating were correct the Government regulations re sealing during two months in the year and restricting sealers to male seals over 3ft in length appear to have been framed in complete ignorance of the habits of seals and the ways of sealers. They appeared to have put a burden on sealers which they could not carry, and that was unfortunate. This referred to Printz's assertion that it was impossible to discriminate the sexes in the rocky caverns frequented by seals, or at that season of the year adults from cubs, which were then nearly grown.