PETERSFIELD.
THE CORN STEALING CASE.—At the Hants Sessions last Thursday, Joseph Pannell, 34, labourer, was indicted for stealing five sacks, about 20 bushels of oats, and five bushels of wheat, value £3 5s. the property of Edward Shenton, his master, at Buriton. —Mr. Poulden prosecuted and Mr. Russell defended.—Prosecutor was a farmer, and prisoner was his head Carter, and as such had under his charge seven horses. In consequence of corn having been missed the police were applied to, and on the 16th od September Superintendent Longlands went to prisoner’s cottage, which was upon the farm, adjoining the stables, and searched it. In a room down stairs he found three sacks of oats, upstairs in a cupboard in the bedroom five more sacks of oats, and in a back room about five bushels of wheat. On prisoner being questioned as to how he came with it, he said that the oats had been served out for the horses, and he took them into his house in order to preserve them until the horses required them. As to the wheat he said that his wife had leazed it, and on prosecutor remarking that there were seeds in it and it did not look like leazed wheat he said that his wife had swept out the wheat wagons in the harvest of 1863. On an examination traces of rats and mice were found, and then prisoner said that she had also swept the barn floor. Four of the prosecutor’s sacks had been laid down on the floor of the room and nailed down, as a substitute for carpets, and the fifth had been cut open and planned out, and when the policeman took them up prisoner said to his wife ‟Didn’t I tell you you would go on till I got into trouble?”—The defence now was that prisoner had only temporarily used the sacks, that the oats were kept in his house on account of its being nearer the stable than the barn, and that the wheat was leazed. After about 10 minutes consultation the jury found the prisoner guilty of stealing the oats and wheat.—Six month’s hard labour.
PETTY SESSIONS, Tuesday.—Present: Honble. J. J. Carnegie (chairman), Sir J. C. Jervoise, Bart., M.P., Sir W. Knighton, Bart., J. Bonham Carter, Esq., M.P., J. Waddington, Esq.
TWO CARTERS TAKING OATS FROM THEIR HORSES. — Henry Sawkins and Edmund Pink carters in the employ of Mr. Charles Collis, a Hermitage Farm, in the parish of Colemore, were charged with taking a quantity of oats from a barn on the said farm for the purpose of giving them to the horses under their care.—Mr. William Asprey deposed as follows: I am bailiff to Mr. Collis. On Monday, the 17th, I requested Mr. William Legg, who lives at the farm, to give defendants sufficient corn for their horses till Tuesday evening. On Tuesday morning I went to Hermitage barn, where the oats had been given from, and found a much larger quantity gone than I had requested Mr. Legg to deliver to defendants. I went and examined the bin in the stable where Sawkins keeps his oats, and found their more than he ought to have had. I then went to Pink’s bin. I asked him how much corn he had; he said only what was left from giving the horses. I told him must come and unlock the bin. I got John Pink, another laborer, to assist me, and we took out from the bin six bushels of unwinnowed oats. I asked defendant how he came by so many when only three bushels had been given out to him. He turned away and made no answer. Some time after he said to me, ‟I must tell you the truth; I stole some of the oats supplied to Vidler (another Carter) for his horses.” I took defendant with me to the barn to see if the heap was in the same states as he had left it on the previous night; he said he could see that some oats were gone from the heap. When Sawkins came home at night I asked him how he came by so many oats in his bin. He said he had two bushels of clean oats at the bottom of his bin, which he had saved for his horses. I said, ‟If you had two bushels in the bin, why did you send to me to say you had no corn for the horses.” He said he didn’t know. On Tuesday, in the presence of Police-Constable Butter, I weighed the unwinnowed oats taken from Sawkins’s bin. We measured up four imperial bushels, and they weighed 110lb. We weighed four bushels from Pink’s bin, and they weighed 105lb. We then went to the barn and weighed four bushels of those in the heap. They weighed 105lb. The winnowed oats weigh from 37 to 38lb a bushel. The barn was locked with four padlocks. I keep the keys.—William Legg deposed to delivering out to the defendant Pink on Monday, the 17th, about 2½ bushels of unwinnowed oats for Sawkins, about ¾ of a sack for himself, about 2½ bushels for Vidler, and one bushel for the nags. Next morning he went to the barn and found the heap had been disturbed since he left it on the previous day.—Mr. Asprey requested to be allowed to add to his evidence that on Tuesday Sawkins went to Alresford with a load of straw. He had five horses, and he took with him two bushels of unwinnowed oats. As soon as he (witness) found that oats had been stolen from the barn, he sent a man on horseback after Sawkins to bring back the oats which he had taken for his horses. The man brought them back; they weighed 28lb a bushel.—Defendants strongly denied their guilt, but entirely failed to account for their possession of a quantity so much in excess of what had been delivered to them.—Convicted: fined £1 each, with costs 5s. 6d. each, or six weeks’ imprisonment with hard labour.
POSSESSING IMPLEMENTS TO KILL GAME.—Henry Pennicot and George Bridel were charged on the information of P.C. Henry Elderfield, with unlawfully having in their possession sundry implements for killing game.—Complainant deposed as follows:On Friday evening, 21st inst., about half-past six, I was on duty with Supt. Longland on the Portsmouth road, near Petersfield. We met the defendants near the Jolly Sailor public-house. They were coming towards Petersfield. Having reason to suspect them, I asked what they had about them. They both replied ‟Nothing.” I searched Pennicot and found in an under pocket of his jacket a single-barrel gun loaded and capped. It was taken to pieces. In another pocket I found a powder flask and some powder, a shot belt, containing shot, and in another pocket a wire slip and two ferry lines with collars (all produced).—Supt. Longland deposed that about half-past three on Friday afternoon he was on the Portsmouth road with last witness, when they met the defendants near Bulling Hill going in the direction of Burton. About half-past six in the evening I was agin on duty, and met them near the Jolly Sailor going towards Petersfield. I asked Bridel what he had in his pockets. He said ‟Only a bag.” I searched him and found in his his pocket a line and rabbit net, and also a rabbit which had been recently shot (produced). I told them I should summon them.—Convicted; fined 10s. each, with costs 4s. each.
There was no evidence as to where the rabbit was shot, but as the men were seen going in the direction of Mr. Bonham Carter’s lands at Buriton, that gentleman declined to take part in the adjudication in this case.
INTERESTING TO PUBLICANS.—William Seward, of Petersfield, appeared to answer two informations charging him with selling in a booth erected at Heath Fair, on the 6th inst., in one case, spirits, and in the other beer, he not having an excise licence authorising him to do so. The case occupied the Bench a long time; but instead of detailing the evidence—which was exactly similar in both cases—we will give a brief outline of the whole matter. Defendant is a licensed retailer of beer, not to be drunk on the premises. On the day in question he erected a booth on the Heath. Mr. John Morrell, landlord of the Ship and Bell Inn, at Horndean, supplied him with his own license as an authority to sell, engaging to pay a per centre on the amount of his sales. There appeared to be no doubt that this would be quite a legitimate proceeding, if it could be proved that Mr. Seward was acting as the servant of Mr. Morrell, and that the name of the latter was conspicuously placed on the outside of the booth; but in the present case the Bench held that the defendant was acting rather in the capacity of an agent, selling on commission, than a bonâ fide servant, in the legal acceptation of the term. Another thing still more fatal to the defence was, that Mr. Seward, instead of placing Mr. Morrell’s name on the outside of the booth, had placed his own name there, and had contented himself with writing the name of the owner of the license conspicuously in chalk in several places within the booth.—The magistrates having consulted, decided that there had been an infringement of the law. The chairman informed the defendant that the penalty imposed by the Act was £20 in each case; but the Bench had the power to reduce this to £5, which power they were inclined to exercise, as they believed that he had acted under an erroneous impression as to the requirement of the law. The Chairman further stated that if defendant should think it proper to memorialise the Board of Inland Revenue for a further reduction of the penalty, the Magistrates would sign a recommendation in support of such memorial.—The information was laid by P.C. Elderfield,
——James Bridger was charged with a like offence, committed at the same time, and under precisely similar circumstances. The owner of the license in this case was Mr. Purchase of the Globe Inn, Chichester.—This case, at the request of defendant, was adjourned till next Bench day.