MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 956, 5 March 1917, Page 8

MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

■ TO-DAY'S CASES. Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., presided at to-day's' sitting of tne Magistrate's Court. DRUNKENNESS. For druukeuuess, Anthony Bannister, alias Arthur, was fined 10/-, in default 48 hours' imprisonment. STOLEN "TOTE - ' TICKETS. Alfred Walter Yates, for whom Mr Hunter appeared, pleaded guilty to a charge of having stolen five totalisator tickets valued at til 7 17/6, the property of Horace Boys. Mr Hunter said the theft was a technical one. Accused was night porter at Warner's Hotel. The offence occurred on the night of a race meeting, when there were a great many people at the hotel, who had had tickets on the totalisator. Accused found the tickets in a waste-paper basket. He thought they had been lost, and that he was entitled to the proceeds. He did not know the law. At the same- time it was a breach of his duty not to rvport his find to the manager. Accused gave two of the tickets to a man named Alexander, telling him he had found them. With regard to the other three, accused wrote to the secretary of the Trotting Club asking him to post the money to him at Warner's Hotel, Dunedin, and gave the name of Frank Foster.

The Magistrate: The question suggests. Why did ho not use his own name? Mr Hunter: The reason is he knew he had done wrong in not reporting the matter to the manager. When asked by Mr Price, the manager, if he had found tickets, he said that a number of them were about. When the police interviewed him he was perfectly frank. The money had been restored. Accused had been in Warner's Hotel for about; seven years, and had the best of characters. Sub-Inspector Hastie. said the owner of the tickets was a traveller, and had purchased the tickets on General Wilkes in the last race. This horse paid £.'! 0/0. He di.l not wait to collect the dividend, but went back to the hotel and gave them to the cashier, veiling her to put them in the safe. The tickets were not put in the safe, and in the morning they were missing. There were also a number of valueless tickets where these were placed, and the valueless tickets were found where they had been left. He asked that his Worship should not believe the story of the accused that the good tickets had been taken from among the others and thrown into the wnstc-paper basket. Evidence was given by Benjamin Price, manager of Warner's Hotel, as to the accused's character.

His Worship: There is not the slightest doubt, Mr Hunter, that there was a criminal intention. Sentence would he deferred till a second case on similar lines had been decided. RECEIVING. Arising out of the last case. William Alexander was charged with having received two tickets from Yates, knowing them to have been dishonestly obtained. lie pleaded not guiltv, and was defended by Mr Hunter. Detective Ward said that vheu he saw the accused he stated that he bought tickets on the racecourse. He maintained this story for some time, ljjrt Inter admitted that he had receiver!"the tickets from Yates, who, he said, told him lie had found them in the wastepaner brisket. The defence was that accused believed the story of Yates that he had found them. - His Worship: Were you surprised when he told yon you could have the proceeds of one ticket? Accused: Not altogether. He Is a most generous man.

His Worship: Very. Did it not seem strange! Accused: No. He is a terribly generous man. His Worship «aid he had 110 doubt that accused knew the tickets wero stolen. Yates had succumbed to sudden temptation, and had drawn his friend into crime by tempting him. It was not, however, a case for gaol. Yates would he fined £lO and ordered to pay half the costs (£3 IH/l). and Alexander would be convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, on condition that ho paid the other half of the costs. CIVIL BUSINESS.

Judgment for the plaintiffs by default was given in the following undefended civil cases:—Cooper & Duncan. Ltd.. v. S. Johnston, £4 12/4; Elsie Forl.es Aitkenhead v. Mrs Ernest L. Smith. 13/-; W. J. Horwell v. Owen McCormack, £6 7/7; F. J. Cox v. D. X. MeFadgen, £4 16/9; Claridge & Smith v. Edgar' Smith, £•'(; fame v. Samuel Harris, £7 15/10; Alex. Wilder, Ltd.. v. Bernard Ingelby, £li 17/6; Agnes Elizabeth Le Beau v. Alford Piggot, £l2 1/3. A PRINTING JOB. Alex. Wilder, Ltd., proceeded against Alfred Baldwin, a newspaper runner, for 15/-, the cost of a printing job done by plaintiffs for the defendant. Defendant admitted that the printing was done to his order, but said that he orttered the goods to be delivered to him. He was quite prepared to pay for them when they were delivered. The Magistrate said there had been no special contract for delivery of the goods. It was not customary for printers to deliver small ordeis. The whole thing was a storm in a teacup. Judgment was for the amount claimed, with costs.

KAIAPOI.

At the Magistrate's Court to-day, William Barrett was adjudged the father of an illegitimate child, and an order was made requiring him to pay 7/6 per week and £6 6/- expenses, and find a surety for £IOO. For exceeding the speed limit in a motor car, William A. Fleming was finejl JO/- and costs (7/-). Herman Barrett, Colin Thbotson, and Gordon Dixon were charged with illegally spreading a net in the Carii Biver. Barrett pleaded not guilty, and the other two guilty, in ignorance. The defence submitted was that Ibbotson and Dixon were strangers t» the district, and that they had borrowed the net from Barrett, and used it in ignorance of the pact that netting waa forbidden over a certain part of the river.

The police account was that the three accused and another man were fouu.l lifting the net from the river. Barrett was fined 40/- and coats, anl the other two £1 and costs.