DISPUTE OVER HEIFER

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21534, 24 September 1941, Page 6

DISPUTE OVER HEIFER

THEFT DENIED IN COURT (Special to Times) OTOROHANGA, Tuesday A charge of stealing a heifer at Otorohanga on or about August 12 was preferred against Albert Hepelsem Ormsby, aged 30, barber, of Otorohanga (Mr N. S. Johnson, Hamilton), when he appeared before Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Otorohanga. Accused pleaded not guilty. Prosecuting, Senior-Sergeant A. G. McHugh said the animal was missing from the farm of Stanley William Mitchell and was found on Ormsby’s property. Ormsby had been approached by the police but stated that the heifer was his and he would not give it up. The defence was a denial of theft, said Mr Johnson. Ormsby stated that the animal was his and he had reared it from a calf. It broke loose from his property one night and he had to chase it along the road from 10.30 p.m. until about 4 a.m. before he managed to secure it. Ormsby had borne a good record for many years and it was not likely that he would prejudice his reputation by stealing a heifer. “Perhaps Ormsby really believes that the animal is his, but there is no doubt in my mind as to the proper owner,” said the magistrate, who dismissed the action and ordered Ormsby to pay the costs of the prosecution. The animal was ordered to be xeturred to Mitchell, and the magistrate stated that if the matter ever came before him as a civil action he would have no doubt as to the ownership.