Magistrate's Court (Press, 7 December 1911)
This is a Generative AI summary of this newspaper article. It may contain errors or omissions. Please note that the language in the summary is reflective of the original article and the societal attitudes of the time in which it was written.
Summary: Magistrate's Court (Press, 7 December 1911)
On 7 December 1911, in the local court proceedings presided over by Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M. and other justices, several individuals faced various charges, resulting in a range of penalties. Frederick Armitage, also known as Alexander Augustus, admitted to stealing a lady's bicycle belonging to Zilpah Bartlett, valued at £5. He received a six-month imprisonment sentence and was ordered to undergo three years of reformative detention following his release. George Coppin pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining liquor while under a prohibition order, and to charges of indecent and obscene language. Declared an habitual inebriate, he was sentenced to two years at Rotoroa. Joseph Ernest Nicholson was remanded until 9 December on four theft charges involving money. William Kemp, represented by Mr Donnelly, initially faced a charge of stealing a diamond ring from a dwelling but pleaded not guilty. The charge was downgraded to a theft conviction, resulting in a fine of 40 shillings, with one month’s imprisonment in default. Tom Selwood, also represented by Mr Donnelly, pleaded not guilty to two charges of indecently assaulting a male. The case was serious enough that he was committed for trial, with one charge being amended to sodomy. In by-law cases, Roy Twyneham and Philip John Smith were each fined 10 shillings for cycling at night without lights. In a separate case in Little River, Grey Skirper, a Māori individual, was prosecuted for illegally taking trout using a net in the Okute stream. After a police search of his boat revealed an additional trout that Skirper failed to account for, he denied the allegations. Subsequently, he was fined £4 and £1 in costs. In Amberley, W. Wilko, represented by Mr Hunter, sought £4 in compensation from S. Burrowes for his dog allegedly smothering two ewes and five lambs. The Magistrate ruled in favour of Wilko, awarding him the full amount claimed along with costs of £2 10s. In Waimate, H. Ernest Watson was fined £2 and costs for providing false information to a county heavy traffic inspector regarding straw loads. G. S. Meredith and Co. admitted guilt on four charges of breaching heavy traffic by-laws and received fines of 10 shillings and costs for each offence. William Quinn did not appear for two similar charges, resulting in him being fined £1 and costs on each count. These proceedings reflect a range of legal issues from theft and alcohol-related offences to animal control disputes and regulatory breaches, showcasing the court's ongoing efforts to uphold the law within the community.
Important Information
The text on this page is created, in the most part, using Generative AI and so may contain errors or omissions. It is supplied to you without guarantee or warranty of correctness. If you find an error or would like to make a content suggestion please get in contact
The text on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 New Zealand