SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143646, 14 November 1911, Page 7

SUPREME COURT.

WELLINGTON SESSIONS. Per Press Association WELLINGTON. Nov. 13. The Supreme Court criminal sessions opened to-day before the' Chief .justice (Sir Robert Stout). There was a light calendar. One young woman, who appeared for sentence on a charge of forgery, was admitted to probation tor twelve months. John Belcher, who admitted theft, was ordered to be confined at Rotorua Inebriates’ Home for one year. Leslie Ryan, at present serving three months in Lyttelton Gaol, was charged with a breach of a probation order granted in July last, and was sentenced to two years’ reformatory treatment at the expiration of his present sentence. Prank Roberts was found guilty of the theft of a hamper containing leather samples, and was remanded for sentence till to-morrow morning. Cecil Craithwaite* for theft of three diamond rings, was found guilty. Sentence was deterred until the morning. WELLINGTON, Nov. 144. At the Supreme Court to-day Frank Roberts, charged with stealing a quantity of leather, was granted probation for twelve months and ordered to pay costs. Cecil Brailhwaite, charged with the theft of three diamond rings, was ordered to be sent to Roto-Roa for twelve months. Accused’s counsel said drink was the cause of the trouble.

• bo iong as wo have drinking customs this sort of thing is bound to occur,” said the Chief Justice. ”1 am not overrating the facts when I say that a-third of the cases at tho criminal sessions are due to drink. Sometimes the proportion is two-thirds.”

CHRISTCHURCH SESSIONS. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 13. The criminal sittings were opened today before Mr. Justice Denniston. His Honour, in addressing the grand jury, said the calendar was a fairly lengthy one, and some of tho cases were of a serious character. He regretted that there were two or three very objectionable cases. There was ono very peculiar case, that of a jealous woman, who, finding her young man going out with someone else, was alleged to have broken into the other woman’s house and thrown cayenne pepper in her eyes. Fortunately, no serious injury had been inflicted. It was the duty of the jury, if they found a prima facie case, to return a bill accordingly.

Andrew Semb was charged with being a habitual offender. Prisoner was declared an habitual criminal, and ordered to be detained in custody until such time as he had satisfied the authorities that ho had abandoned the course of life he had in the past followed.

In the case of Grace Agnes MTaggart, who had pleaded guilty to bigamy, his Honour sajd there were no wider degrees of crime than in bigamy. The recent case was peculiar in some respects, and prisoner would be ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, provided she paid the costs of tho proceedings. Mary Browne, a young woman, came up for sentence for concealment of birth. Mr. Hunter, who appeared for her, said that she had been three months in gaol prior to the last court sessions, and she had since been three months in the Samaritan Home. His Honour said prisoner had practically been in gaol for six months, so that under the circumstances he would only sentence her to three months’ imprisonment dating from the last sessions, so that she would be now practically discharged. Norman Ramsay came up for*sentence on a charge of breaking and entering. Mr. Stringer stated that prisoner had just come out of gaol, when he went to his mother and asked her for assistance. She bought him a set of carpenter’s tools for his trade, and within four days ho had commitiea his present ; offence. He was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment. Con Twomoy, a seventeen-year-old youth, pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault, and was ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. Charles Amos Houston, who pleaded guilty to two charges of forging and uttering cheques, received two years’ imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to bo concurrent.

Margaret Christina Porter, for whom Mr. Cassidy appeared, pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering the dwelling of Charles Dodd, but guilty to unlawfully assaulting one , Mary O’Donnell. The Crown Prosecutor accepted the plea. His Honour said he was sure neither the country nor the woman had anything to gain by sending her to gaol, but then there was the question of example to consider. It was no use in fining a woman of this sort, because no doubt it would come out of the mouths of her children. She was ordered to enter into one surety of £25, and also to come up for sentence when called upon. Thomas Veitch, for whom Mr. Leatham appeared, pleaded not guilty to receiving a cheque for £lO for some person unknown, knowing the same to hare been dishonestly obtained. Accused was convicted and sentence deferred. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 14.

In the Supreme Court, Thomas Koitch, who was convicted on the previous day for receiving a stolen cheque, applied'for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence.

The judge refused the application, but deferred sentence to permit prisoner to make an application to the AttorneyGeneral.

DUNEDIN SESSIONS. DUNEDIN, Nov. 13. The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court opened to-day before Mr. Justice Sim, who congratulated the district on the lightness of the calendar, there being only three cases for hearinf. Alexander Walquist was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for breaking and entering a hut near Oamarn, and on a charge of being a rogue and a vagabond George Ernest Kelly was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and ordered to bo detained for reformative treatment for a period not exceeding five years. George Marshall, charged with obscene exposure in a public place and alternatively with committing an indecent act, was acquitted.