Sheep-stealiug Case.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2066, 11 May 1887, Page 3

Sheep-stealiug Case.

Ths Magistrate’* Court «u occupied on Monday at Masterton witii a case in which George Moore, a Wairarapa settler, was prosecuted for sheep stealing. The prosecu* tor was a Maori named Anars, who owns a natire reserve m Lparaima, on the East Coast, part of which he leases to Moore. The evidence for the prosecution, which was given in an exceedingly straightforward manner, shewed that 17 lambs in the Maori's dock wsre claimed by Moore, but Ausrn refused to give them np, ss they bad his brand. A fortnight later the Maoris found seven of theae lambs among s large dock of Moore's sheep, which the brother of the accused, Fred Moors, was driving to his station. An ear •as exhibited by defendant's counsel that bore evidence of having had the fork cat off baton being marked with Moore’s brand, and the inference was left that although the disputed lambs were coloured and ear marked by the prosecutor, Moore’s earmark bad previously been removed by some one. The Bench, consisting of the Mayor and Colonel MaDoonell, at the cloee of the case tor the prosecution, dismissed the information, remarking that the accused left the Court without the slightest stein on his character.