S.M. COURT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7540, 22 January 1896, Page 3

S.M. COURT.

;i, : [Bratoßß i Messrs Lucas and Akroyd J.P.s.] f, . „ ; &VLEQSV LABOBNY OF A TICKET. J.AMES Hahlon was charged on the infort ..f. mation of Oacar B. Hubble with stealing a -' . ticket),' for the Druids' social, value 6s 6d, on i i „ the 11th July 1895 MrDeLautour appeared . . ■' ■ for the accused who pleaded not guilty.— Mr „ : Hubblfl, who conducted his own case, stated ■;,'; thab in June 1895 he was the owner of a ticketior the Druids' social. It was either '-.-■? tosto? stolen, and on the 11th July it was . ' presented at the Druids' social by Louis Carron. He- handed the ticket over to Constable Crawford.— To Mr DeLautour : y;. . Constable Crawford would produce the pf tioket. He was one of the committee of the if. : Draida' aooial. Some tickets were put into '. . . his hands for sale and those he did not .. • ■ return tie was responsible for. He had not , paid for the tioket before he lost it. He t': ..might. have had a dozen tickets in all, but £hp,one lost was not specially earmarked for ;.,'' &£9> 'jlf, the ticket had not been presented ■ Ukpnight not have had to pay for it, but as :. ' it 'Was ■ .used he was responsible for the price.— Constable Crawford produced the - tioket used on the 11th July last. He said „ it was the same now as when he got it ' in. July last. In a conversation with the accused about it, .the latter admitted having sold it.-rJ. R. Little remembered giving the '-. 'prisecnt.pr^iSbrae tickets for the Druids' social Torsale,' and also collecting the money for those that had been sold. He was selling tickets, at' the door the night the ticket was produced. He did not know of anyone but the Committee having tickets for sale until after the social. Some time after Mr Maxwell and the accused .called at Messrs Kennedy and Evans'- office, where witness .worked/ and offered to pay for the tioket. ':,:., Shis was after the Committee had met and '\% settled up. .It might have been a month ._¥*>-' after. — To Mr DeLautour : A list was kept „ ■ of the persons to whom the tickets were issued, •" The tickets were transferable. The Co'mmitjtee took the tickets to sell, and returned all, that were not disposed of. — To Mr Hubble : Any tickets not returned had to be paid for by the members of the Committee.—Louis Carron stated he was at the ■ooial. He bought the ticket from the accused, and paid 6s for it. Accused did ■ot say where be got it from. Witness would not (have bought it had he been told that it had : been p'ioked up. Accused said he was not going to the social. That waß his reason for, selling it under cost price. He saw accused in the gallery the same evening. — To Mr DeLantour : There was another performance, in 'Gisborne that night. There were three or four persons with him, and .they were talking about what place of amusement they should go to. Accused reaid he had a ticket- for the social, and witness bought it and went there. The . : others went somewhere else. — Mr DeLautour 1 -. addressed the Court on behalf of the accused. He said that accused had picked up the ticket near the gate leading to the premises . of Mr .Webb, and had told several persons that he had found it. As there was no name on it he thought he was justified in annexing it. It was a common idea among people that " finding waa keeping." He submitted there -was nd; felonious intent. He would call Mr Maxwell and others to speak as to accused's character. — Mr Maxwell stated accused was in his employ, and had always given satisfaction. Accused showed witness the ticket, eayiog he had found it at Webb's gate. Mr Hubble sent a search warrant to witness' premises to see if he coultffind the things he had lost, but nothing had been found. — To Mr' Hubble : The reason for the search . warrant being issued was that witness heard • proseoutor had lost other things besides : . jj ■ the ticket. He noticed Mr Little's name on g/ theiticket, but did not tell accused what to ■■ do 4 with it. Accused told witness that he thought the ticket belonged to Mr Webb, . and took it to the house to ascertain if it did, .■ but ; Webbs were not out of bed.— James ' . Robb , (Patutahi) remembered seeing the accused on the morning of the day on which the Druids' social was held. Accused told fum he had a ticket which he had fonnd at Mr Webb's gate.— To Mr Hubble : He did not offer the ticket for sale. — Mrß. Johnston, J.P., had known accused for two years, and gave him a good-character.— To Mr Hubble : He did not think that accused had any dishonest intention in selling the ticket. — Mr DeLautonr said the accused admitted the ' facts. He, however, submitted that as ' ' there was no felonious intent there was no '• .crime. There was no proof that the ticket : }/ belonged to Hubble, and at the time the S, Accused found it he had no knowledge of whom it belonged to. — Mr Hubble contended that, the accused knew the ticket was not his own- property, and did not endeavor to . find ont if it belonged to Mr Webb, or who was the owner. The accused bad sold the ticket and converted the proceeds to his own use. . If that was not larceny, any person' . who stole any article could get off by pleading that he picked it up. He considered there was evidence of felonious intent, ' ■ • because the accused. had sold the ticket. . The Bench : We have come to the con- ,„ elusion that the accused had no felonious • :■' intent: .that he erred through ignorance; : ' and we therefore dismiss the case.