SUPREME COURT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 188, 11 August 1931, Page 5

SUPREME COURT

TWO TRUE BILLS RETURNED HIS HONOUR’S ADDRESS. The Supreme Court opened in Wan-] ganui yesterday, Mr Justice Blair be- i ing on the Bench. In his charge to the Grand Jury, His Honour said that the list was a very light one, there being only two cases for their consideration. The first was one of false pretences and was quite | simple. Tho accused went’ to a solici tor and asked him to prepare an agreement for a stumping contract for 70 acres at £l4 an acre. Some talk took ! place about finance, the accused saying he wanted a certain machine called a “Canadian stumper.’’ Eventually the solicitor introduced him to a man who advanced £4O. The money was duly paid and the accused then disappeared. It would be shown that there was never anything in the way of a stumping contract. It should De a clear prinia facie case. The second case was one of those unfortunate cases that were becoming somewhat common, although as far as His Honour knew they were not coin mon in this district. The charge was one of causing the death of a cyclist by. negligent driving. Evidence was that the victim was riding towards Kaka ramea at night, apparently on his right side, and with a light on the bicycle. The evidence apparently showed that from the point where he was hit to where the body was found it was 51 feet and to where the remains of the bicycle was found, some hundreds of feet beyond that again. The accused did not report the accident and wont home. There was a suggestion that others in the car were under the in-.’ fluence of liquor. Accused denied that he was driving the car, and said that, his ■wife was driving. His Honour thought that the jury would have no difficulty in returning a true bill. There, were alternative charges, but if he wore found, guilty of the major charge he must also be guilty oh the others. The Grand Jury was: Frederick Charles Atkinson (foreman), Guy Moore Broad, Walter John Gardner, William James Stone, Herbert James Grieve. Percy Whitlock, Ernest Hay Frankish. Arthur Frederick Woollams, Sydney Montgomery Davis, Reginald George Bellamy, Frederick William Slater, I John Darling Anderson. John Thomas Worry, William Martin Rennie, Richard Farley, Charlton Pearce, Frederick Roslyn Dunsford, Walter Tiffin Stewart, Frederick John Nancarrow, Ronald Hatrick, John McMillan, Herbert Cun ' nington Hassell and Thomas Robinson• Bond. The Grand Jury returned a true bil' in each case.