DISTRICT COURT, HAMILTON.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8006, 11 September 1906, Page 2

DISTRICT COURT, HAMILTON.

THIS DAY. i (Before His Honor District Judge Kettle.) Kenneth Bayne was charged with steali ing a piHce of greenstone from a Maori > grave atKinohaku between the Ist and Ith day of June, 1905, and with r.iCaiviDggreenstone between June, 1905, and January, 1906, knowing it to be falsely obtained. Air W. A. Graham interpreted. Prisoner was defended.by M Keed. Mr Tole, Crown Prosecutor, addressing " the jury stated that the greenstone had been placed over the grave of the mother of a Maori named Hopokoia, in June, 19J5, and a few days later disappeared. Hopokoia deposed that, in the beginning of June, he placed a mere on his mother's grave on his own land. He fixed it to a peg hanging by a nail. (Here the mere was produced and identified.) The mere descended to him for four generations. To discover the mere the person taking it must have gone close up to see. He would not sell it for a million pounds. Prisoner lived about a mile or half a mile from him. When he saw the mere again, it was near the gate of his whare. It was night when he saw it. He noticed footprints the next day which he followed to the prisoner's home. The footsteps were of one person only. By the Judge: They were traced both coming and going. No other footprints * were about. He taw the prisoner on the 27th aud on the Wednesday previous. The road through Kinohaku ran through uia property. When he saw prisoner on June 4th, he was carrying some cabbage trees coming from the grave. That particular variety grew nowhere else but in that vicinity. Cross-examined by Air Reed: He had no recollection of a Laud Commission - sitting at Kinohaku on that day, but remembered one at Otorohanga at that time. When he found the mere, he took it straight to the p -lice and told no one about it. It was a fine night when he fouud it. Prisoner was at work on, a contract on the road. There were no' other tracks than prisoner's between his whare , and the Queen's road. The distance between these two points was about equal to from that Courthouse to Victoriastreet. He traced traoks right to the prisoner's house. Here a pencil sketch was made and shown to judge and jury, showing the tracks from the whare to prisoner's house. There were four men working on the road, three of whom camped on the road near the sea. The tracks of these men went on the road, but did not cross the prisoner's tracks) ✓ The prisoner used the track regularly. By Air Tole ; He only saw one track of the prisoner's from his whare to the prisoner's houie, and he had no doubt whatever it was his. The daughter of Hopokoia deposed that she remembered the more being placed on her grandmother's grave, and' some months afterwards she found it inside a gate, leading to her father's whare, at night. She carried %■ lantern, and was returning home from Bpoaring flounders. She would have seen the mere had it been there when she went out. as ic was not dark. She took it to her father's house next morning. The footprints leading from the whare to the road were quite fresh. She saw prisoner working on the road two days before. By Mr Keed: 'i here was no rain the night she found the mere. It had rained the previous day, clearing up in the even. * ing. Any other tracks of the prisoner's on " the Queen's road were old marks. She did not sfe prisoner woiking on the road that day and thought ho was not working. She believed he did not cross the track that day, but it was her firm belief that the tracks were the prisoner's. By Mr Tole: She saw only one kind of footprint leading from her father's house to the main road. By the Judge: The general public did not use the traok p.ist their whare, and it , was a private one. There was another track the public used. The policeman did not come down that day. She showed the track to another Maori. [Left sitting. I