ALLEGED SHEEP THEFT.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18164, 31 October 1930, Page 8

ALLEGED SHEEP THEFT.

TE MATA CASE. i u'fiTm' BREACHES OF STOCK ACT. ’ .COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. Charged with the theft of sheep, the property of Jerome Cornille, of Te Mata, Herbert Christian Olsen, 3-t years of age, and Francis Joseph Walmsley, 23 years, appeared before i Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Olsen was charged with the theit of a coil of wire, on September 25, the.theft'of one sheep on October 12, and conjointly with Walmsley with the theft of three sheep on different dates. Constable Aplin who visited Te Mata in company with Detective J. White and Constable Watt, in Walmsley’s presence examined 13 sheep skins Avhich were lying on a heap of manure in a shed. All the skins were minus ears. When questioned by Detective White as to why there were no ears on the skins, Walmsley said he did not know, as Olsen did all the killing. He added that it was not necessary to leave the ears on and he did not see how/one could get into trouble for killing his own sheep. Walmsley said he had between 300 and 400 sheep on the property. Witness saw hanging in the shed the forequarters of hogget mutton. Witness supervised the mustering of the property’. He noticed that the boundau fences were in good order‘and sheepproof, particularly the one between Walmsley’s and Cornille’s Pakahe .paddock. While mustering witness observed a coil of barbed wire in the fern a short distance from Cornille s boundary fence. He also found the contents of .the stomachs of two sheep in some swampy grohnd. .He also found an earless head of a two-toothed sheep- It was pointed out to Walmsley after the muster that quite a number of the hoggets had portions of their ears cut away. Walmsley said this had probably happened when he had caught the sheep to ear-mark them, as he caught them by th<? ears and twisted them to hold them. _ He also remarked that the dogs might have chewed the sheep’s ears. Detective White gave evidence that when he approached Walmsley regarding the theft of 27 hoggets Walmsley said, “Was I seen taking these sheep?,” Olsen, when interviewed, had made a statement in which he admitted being ■ implicated with Walmsley in removing sheep from the Cornille property for mutton. Both accused pleaded not guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court at Hamilton' for trial, bail being allowed.