Magesterial.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 141, 24 October 1868, Page 2

Magesterial.

This Day. (Before C. C. Bowen, Esq., R.M.) Larceny. — Helen Pearson was brought up in custody, charged on six separate informations with having stolen wearing apparel and other articles, from places where they had been put to dry, near (iic outskirts of the city. Her husband was also brought up charged with complicity in all but the first case. Evidence was adduced from which it appeared that prisoner had been twice caught in the act of carrying off clothing from hedges and also distinctly identifying other property found in the house inhabited by herself and husband. Mr Harris, of Durham street, North, was the chief prosecutor, and affirmed to baring lost between £30 and £40 worth of property in the manner stated above during the past three or four months. The articles produced in Court comprised almost every description of house and wearing apparel, inclusive, even of heavy blankets and tablecloths. The female prisoner admitted having picked up the articles found in her possession in one of the cases where she had been seen to take them, but said that she had no intention of stealing them, and denied her identity in the second. Respecting her manner of becoming possessed of the articles found in the house, she made a rambling statement to the effect that she hud pur chased them from a hawker who had called upon her and represented them as belonging to a gentleman about to leave for England. The male prisoner denied any knowledge of how his wife became possessed «f thr articles further than as she had stated, and he had given her money to pay for them. His Worship considered all the cases clearly proved against the female prisoner, but not against her husband, and committed the former to three months' imprisonment at hard labour on each case. Three of the informations, being merged into one case, made the total term of imprisonment one year.