MAGISTERIAL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7286, 14 August 1893, Page 3

MAGISTERIAL.

TIMARU— Monday, August Hth* (Before O. A. Wray Esq., E.M.) FOUL CHIMNEY. For allowing a chimney to catch fire on j Saturday evening, P* Palleeon,mßeter mariner, j was fined 6s and costs. PETTY THEFTS. Two boys named Gibbs, and one named Black, 10£ to 12 years old, were charged with stealing on the 10th and 12th inst., two jelly I dishes and a vase value 2s 6d, the property of B Bowie, aud an iron kettle value 4s, the property of J. 8. Bennett. 'ibe articles were missed, the losses reported, and Detective Livingstone found that they had been sold to Mr B. Webster, fur* niture dealer. In each case the articles were taken from among goods displayed outside the respective shops. The boy Black admitted stealing the kettle, and one of tue Gibbs boys that he took some of the other I things. The third boy denied that he had j any hand iu the business, and the others | supported him. j Mr Webster was called to explain how he i j came to buy such things from youngsters, and i I stated that he was sent for by Mrs Black to I buy some small articles of furniture, as they i < I were hard up—plates dishes etc He bought I . some aid Mrs Black sent them down by the I boy in a bag. Among them were the glass ' things, which be bad not bought, and the boy said his mother asked for sixpence for them. ( Told him ho had not a sixpence, only shillings, and the boy took them away, and returned * with them and a couple of plates, and ho then 1 gave the boy a shilling for the lot. Naturally t supposed the mother sent the whole of the ( things. The three boys, he thought, came together, and he supposed they were all of one C family. Later on the same boy brought a kettle 8 and said his mother wanted a shilling for that. Suppose this sale was made by the mother for the same reason as the former one, and 1 gave the boy the shilling. Afterwards be 8 noticed that the kettle had net been used, i and then he suspected that be would bear c more about it.

Mrs Black emphatically and tearfully denied that she ever saw any of the things or knew anything abjut them Mrs Gibbs admitted that her boys had played truant from school nil last week, unknown to her until this morning. The led who had denied that he was concerned in tbe matter, was dismissed j tbe other two were ordered six strokes of a rod in the presence of tbeir parents. His Worship remarked that it was a mistake, an objectionable practice, to expose goods on or beside tbe footpaths.