HURST V. WICKHAM.

Observer, Volume II, Issue 44, 16 July 1881, Page 490

HURST V. WICKHAM.

When the Supreme Court met on Thursday morning, just twenty minutes late by the clock, Mr Hesketh, who "appeared for the defence, read a very humble apology and a promise of future good behaviour, written by the defendant, and accepted by the prosecutor. The plea of " Not guilty" was then withdrawn by defendant's counsel, a plea of guilty substituted, and his Honour, after addressing a severe homily to defendant, inflicted a nominal line of Is. His Honour characterised the article as "utterly indefensible." Defendant pays £20 towards prosecutor's costs, and the expenses of the jury. Mr Wickham then left the Court amid the congratulations of his friends, but there was a painful expression of disappointment in the faces of many of the public who had attended in the hope of being regaled with old and half-forgotten scandals. Thus the causa cclcbre which has been the current topic of the past few weeks has resulted in a complete "fizzle," and the numerous witnesses who have been brought from Waikato, Corornandel, the Thames, and the North (amongst them one or two ladies), will have enjoyed a brief holiday at the expense of one or other of the parties in the case.