Resident Magistrate's Court.

Southland Times, Issue 4491, 1 December 1882, Page 2

Resident Magistrate's Court.

Wednesday, 29th November.

(Before Messrs Turnbull and NichoJ, Js.P.)

DRUNKENNESS. A first offender was fined 10s for drunkenness.

BYLAW CASES.

Several defendants were fined for breaches of the .bylaws. k

THE ATTEMPT TO STAB,

Joseph Martin Gilchrist was charged with attempting to dp Maurice Gorman serious bodily injury on the 18th inst. at Waikiwi. Prisoner said he had engaged Mr Finn to conduct his defence, but he wns; not present. He believed he was out of town. The Bench asked if Mrjßattray was present. — Inspector Buckley Baid Mr Rattray had been in Court that 'morning, but said he knew nothing about the case. — Prisoner said he would conduct his own case, and requested to be supplied with paper and pencil. This having been done, the prosecutor was put in the witness box, and stated that he resided at Waikiwi. He called at the Governor Grey Hotel, Avenal, on the evening of the 18th inst., on his way home. There were four others, including the prisoner, in the bar. One of the men, whom he recognised, was quarrelsome and jostled an old man near him. Prisoner thereupon offered to take the part of the latter, and stripping to his trousers, said he was a Tipperary man, and shaped fight. Witness said he was a Tipperary man too, and added that if the prisoner wanted to keep himself respectable he had better put on his clothes agaiD. The prisoner then put on his clothes and one of the men present shouted for all in the room except one, with whom he had been quarrelling, and for that one prisoner shouted. Witness then offered the prisoner, if he was a Tipperary man, shelter in his home for a couple of nights. Prisoner accepted, and they went. About three chains beyond Gladstone, the prisoner began, to use bad language and complained of having lost his revolver on the preceding Inight. Prisoner also spoke in Gaelic— The Bench : Was that bad too ? — Witness didn't know whether the Gaelic was good or bad, as he couldn't understand it. Prisoner at this point commenced lagging- behind, and witness was getting rather frightened of his companion but was unable to get rid of him. Witness then called at the Waikiwi Hotel, which was closed, and after calling up the landlord, asked for a glass of beer and some lemonade. Prisoner drank the lemonade and witness had the beer. He then asked for a bed for the prisoner, but the landlord said he could not accommodate him. He might have given the prisoner a shakedown, but the latter put himself in fighting attitude and said he had never had to put up with a shake-down. Witness then had a pint of beer and provided himself with a bottle of whisky, alter which he left. j Ou leaving the hotel they saw a dray passing and asked for a lift but this was refused. The dray had got past them a short distance when prisoner commenced cooeying loud enough to be heard in Invercargill! Witness asked him to desist, but a little time afterwards he commenced again louder than before. The next thing he did was to lie down and roll into a ditch. Witness did not like to leave him. In order to rouse him witness filled his bat with water and sprinkled his faco with it. Prisoner got up at once, and they proceeded along good friends for a little iistcince, when he accused witness of leading him astray. When three chains from the bridge oa this side of Mr Bain's house prisoner put his hand behind him, drew something' from his belt, stepped to one side, stabbed witness in the groin, and then started to walk back again to Invercargill. Witness felt no pain, and only knew he was stabbed from the blood trickling down his leg. He ran to Mr Bain's house, roused him up, and then fell unconscious on the steps. When he came to himself he found himself in the hospital in bed. He left the hospital on the fifth day, but was told by the doctor not to walk or work for some little time. He was still very weak. Gould not say what became of the bottle of whisky. Neither he nor the prisoner had any of it from the time they left the hotel to the time of the stabbiug. There was no one in his company after leaving flic Governor Chey Hotel with the accused, and he had no quarrel with him during that time. — Cross-examined by the prisoner : Witness saw the prisoner for the first lime in his life at the Governor Grey Hotel on the evening in question ; did not see prisoner during the afternoon writing out a cheque on the Bank of New Zealand ; witness did not try to borrow money from him, nor did he notice that they were followed almost all the way by two men. He was quite sure it was the prisoner who stabbed him. — Dr Lewis was called and stated that ho was sent for by Mr Bain on the morning of the 19th inst. He found the hist witness lying on the verandah in a pool of blood. He dressed the wound and ordered him to be sent to the hospital in the morning. Gorman had been sick and was wandering in his mind, but was able to tell him that he had been stabbed by a stranger. The wound was in a very dangerous place. By the prisoner : The injured man described his assailant as one who " might be a trooper." Gorman was so excited and had lost so much blood that it was difficult to tell when he first saw him whether he was drunk or sober. By the Bench : He could not have been very drunk if he managed to find his wav to Mr Bain's house from where he had been stabbed. After luncheon some further evidence was taken, mostly corroborative of that already given. Messrs Stark, Pilgrim and Stephens, the landlords of the Governor Grey, the Gladstone and the Waikiwi hotels respectively, having spoken to visits paid them by the prosecutor and the prisoner, and Stevens, the drayman, having also corroborated the prosecutor's evidence as to prisoner's conduct when he saw the dray, Mr Bain was examined but nothing fresh was elicited. Mr John Mclntosh, landlord of the Junction Hotel, deposed to the prisoner calling upon him at about four o'clock on the morning of the 19th inst, and asking for a bed. Witness accommodated him with one, and prisoner informed him before retiring that he had been attacked by a couple of men who had stolen all he had except a few shillings, and slashed him. He showed his clothes, which were marked aa if cut with a knife in several places. Prisoner did not complain of being actually wounded, although he stated oa getting up that he was too sore to, walk, and asked witness to let him have a buggy to drive into town. Witness did not provide him with one, and prisoner then asked that the barman might accompany him. Witness had no objection to this, and prisoner was just about to leave the hotel when Constable Carroll arrived and arrested him. — Constable Carroll deposed to arresting the prisoner. He told him the same tale spoken to by the last witness, and said he supposed the man who stabbed him must have been the one who had described him to Carroll. Witness searched him and found in his pockets some loose coins stained with blood. He believed prisoner had been suffering recently from the effects of intemperate habits. — The Bench said they wore satisfied that a prima facie case had been made out, but the case was too serious for them to deal with. — The prisoner, when asked if he had anything to say, simply pleaded " Not guilty " again. He was then formally committed for trial.

Friend— { Hello, Jim, you ain't out of work agaiu are you? 1 Unfaithful employe— 'Well, yes ; fact is, I,m not able to wk } keen injured by a premature. <Ji§9&su:ge,'