THE EDENDALE SENSATION,

Otago Witness, Issue 2437, 28 November 1900, Page 53

THE EDENDALE SENSATION,

A REMAND GRANTED.

(By Oue Special Refoeter.) WYNDHAM, November 21. Charles Arnett, agent, of Mataura, was brought before Mr S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., :it Wyndham this morning, charged, on remand, ■with stealing on July 6 a cheque for £56 Bs, on July 18 a cheque for £49 10s 2d, on August 3 a cheque for £35 15s 3d, on August 21 a. cheque for £62 10s 6d, on September 4 a cheque for £30 18s 2d, and ou September 18 a cheque for £265, all drawn by F. J. Stillivan, Dunedin, on the Union Bank of Australia, in favour of Charles Milne. Accused was further charged with attempting to murder, on October 29, Charles Milne, William Gordon, and John White, by administering poison— to wit, strychnine. Mr T. Macdonald,* Crown Prosecutor, instraefcfed by Inspector Pardy, appeared to prosecute, and Mr A. C. Hanlon appeared for accused. Chief-detective - Campbell was also present. -- The charges, of theft were taken first, and Mr Macdonald, in opening the case, said that Milne was a rabbiter, living at Edendale, and accused Arnett was an agent at Mataura. During the rabbit season of 1899, which extended from March to October, accused entered into an agreement with Milne for the supply of rabbits for Mr Sullivan. A similar agreement was entered into during the current y«ar, 1900. In 1899 the mode of payment to Milne was through Arnett. Milne now. alleged that he had never been paid, in full for that season. During this season .a different mode of payment was adopted, and Milne was sent a' cheque pii-iodically. Milne obtained a cheque from Sullivan, and acknowledged it in the ordinary way. Arnett ceased to be Mr Sullijran's agent about~ July 14 last. Nothing would be brought before the court alleging anything prior to July 6. What accused was nov charged with was the theft of six cheques belonging to Milne, the first dated July 6. Tile way the cheques were taken was this : The first one was sent to H. Milne at Edendale. Accused went to the Edendale Post Office, and obtained possession of the" letter containing it. There appeared to have been a practice where parties were well known for the postmaster to hand letters over to a third person for delivery to the people to whom they -were addressed. In any case, accused received this letter on behalf of Milne. Shortly after Mr Sullivan received a letter purporting to be signed by Milne, requesting that letters for him in future should be sent to Mataura, and not to Edendale. It must be remembered that Milne never changed his address. Milne would give evidence that he knew nothing about the letter requesting his correspondence to be addressed to Mataura, and the suggestion was that accused wrote it. Any way, in consequence of that letter, the cheques referred zo in the information werp sent in letters to Milne at Mataura. Accused obtained these from the Mataura Post Office, opened them, and appropriated the cheques. It would be shown that they were taken to the Bank of New South Wales at Gore, paid in personally to the. credit of accused, or by his . direction iv letters, and forwarded to Dunedin, where they wot© duly honoured. The -prosecution now. .alleged that these cheques were stolen by accused, and his Woi*ship. would be asked to infer this, from the cV xx - S ' anfl col:am^ accused for trial. William Turner Simpson, manager and bookkeeper for P. J. Sullivan, rabbit exporter. Dunediu, was the first witness. He deposed that Arnett acted as Sullivan's agent m 1899, and from the beginning of the season of 1900 up to July 14. In 1899. and from the beginning- of the season of 1900 up to July 14. 1899, Arnett paid Milne Personally on behalf of Mr Sullivan. Arn-elt had an account at the Bank of New South "Wales at Gore, and Sullivan sent him money to make payments with. In May. 1900, a change was made. Up to that time in this season an account was kept at the Bank of New South Wales, Mataura, from which Amett made payment ; but after May it was decided to I pay direct from Dunedin. The cheque (produced) written out by witness and signed by Mr Sullivan was for £56 Bs, ancl was posted by witness to Milne at Edendale. He got a receipt back signed " Chas. Milne." The cheque dated July 18, for £49 10s 2d, was posted to Milne at Mataura by witness. The change in address was made in consequence | of a letter received, which they presumed | came from Milne. Similar evidence was then given in regard to the. other cheques. Colin Mac Gibbon, manager of the Bank of New South Wales at Gore, gave evidence that accused opened an account with their bank in March, 1899. The cheque for £56 8s was naid in by Arnett himself, and was endorsed "Chas. Milne" on the back. The cheque for £49 10s 2d was sent by Arnett in a letter requesting that it should be placed to his credit. This cheque, as well as the succeeding ones, was endorsed " Chap. Milne," and credited to Arnatt, the last one being paid in September. - Norton Frederick Pattle, clerk in .the Union Bank of Australia at Dunedin, deposed that the six cheques produced were all presented at the Union Bank, v/ere honoured, and debited to Mr Sullivan. They came from the Bank of New South .Wales. George Faris, stationmaster and postmaster at Edendale, said that Arnett called several times for Milne's letters. Witness could not say when he called last. March 5 was the only date he could be certain about. Wit-

ness's assistant handed over the letters to Arnett. Milne got letters almost daily for himself. William King, clerk in the Mataura post office, said that he did not know Milne. They received letters for him, and letters addressed to Milne were delivered to accused. He did not know that Milne had ever called for his own letters. Accused produced an order purporting to be signed by Milne, and that wpp why he received the letters. Charles Milne, rabbiter, deposed that in consequence of an arrangement with accused, he sent rabbits to Mataura in 1899 for Mr Sullivan. He received payment in cheques, signed by accused, and he had not yet been paid in full for them. In 1900 he again arranged to supply Mr* Sullivan through accused. In the early part of the season he got cheques from accused, but he could not be sure how many. He paid them in to Jiis accotmt on the Bank of New Zealand at Wyndham. He had received one cheque direct from Mr Sullivan for £80 17s sd, dated June 18. which he also paid into Ui& account after endorsing it. He had never received any of the six cheques produced in the court, and none of the endorsements on the back were his hand-writing. He never authorised anyonesto obtain these cheques for him, or to endorse them. The signature to the receipt produced was not bis either. He did not write the letter (produced) which Mr Sullivan received requesting the change of witness's address to Mataura. Neither did he authorise accused to obtain letters of his at Edendale or Mataura. Witness did not know till about a week ago that accused had ceased to be Sullivan's agent. Witness pressed accused for payment of the balance due on the 1E99 season every time he saw him, but did not get anything until March last, when he received cheques for £100 ancl £80 odd. He received a cheque from accused in May last for £39 on account of the current season, and a further cheque for £30 odd about the same time. Thede four cheques were all that he had got from accused this year. Mr Hanlon did not cross-examine any of the witnessed. At this stage Mr Macdonald intimated that he did not intend to call further evidence, but would ask for a remand on all the charges to Invercargill Of course they could not have the case remanded for a longer period than eight days, but he asked that it should be remanded on the under s Landing that there should be a further rsmand to December 11, when it could be gone on with. Mr Hanlon agreed to this course, and asked for bail. He said it was a matter for the discretion of the court, and ho submitted that there was no reason why accused should not be liberated on bail, so as to have an opportunity to prepare his defence. He referred more particularly to the poisoning case, and contended that the application was reasonable, as the men alleged to have been poisoned had recovered, and the case could assume no greater proportions than it did at present. Mr Macdonald objected to bail. Mr Hanlon submitted that the Crown-Pro-secutor had no 'right to object to bail. -It was a question purely for the discretion of the court. Mr Macdonald said that in the interests of justice it was inexpedient that bail should be granted. Mr M'Carthy said that where the charge involved the attempt to deprive human beings of their life it was unusual to allow bail, and he thought it proper, tinder the circumstances, to decline bail in the case before .him. The case,., will accordingly be called on at Invercargill on the 28th inst., when a further adjournment will take place.