PETERSFIELD.
Agent—MR. G. DUPLOCK
PETTY SESSIONS
TUESDAY.—Present the Hon. J. J. Carnegie (chairman), J. Bonham-Carter, Es., M.P., and J. Waddington, Esq.
THEFT OF TURNIPS.—Richard Belton and John Belton, father and son, were charged with stealing on the night of Saturday, January 25th, from a field on Fir-grove Farm, in the parish of Bramshott, a quantity of turnips, the property of Mr. Christmas.—Mr. White, of Guildford, appeared for the defendants.—John Envess, a shepherd in the employ of Mr. Christmas, deposed that on Sunday morning, the 26th ult., he missed a quantity of turnips from the field in question, and on Monday he communicated the fact to P.C. George Chase, who accompanied him to the spot where the turnips had been pulled, whence they traced footprints across several fields right up to the defendant's premises. Chase asked first the son and afterwards the father if they had any turnips on the premises. They both answered "No;" but on entering the house he found a copper boiling filled with turnips of the same sort as those which had been stolen. He then examined and measured their boots, and found they agreed exactly both in dimensions and in their peculiarity of nailing with the footprints they had been tracing, the elder defendant's boot having an additional mark of identity in the absence of half the pelt from the toe.—Defendants were convicted and adjudged to pay 35s., including fine, costs, and value.
ALLEGED BREACH OF CONTRACT.—Henry Millard was charged by Henry Ifould with non-fulfilment of a contract. Complainant deposed that on the 20th of December he engaged defendant to cut a sertain quantity of copse wood, for which he agreed to pay 3s. 6d. a hundred for bunts, with the bushes in; 3s. a hundred if the bush bavins were cut out; and 1s. 3d a hundred for poles. He worked for three weeks, at the end of which time he had somewhat overdrawn his earnings, and he then left the work unfinished. He (complainant) had sold 2,000 bavins, which, owing to defendant's non-fulfilment of his contract, he had been unable to deliver at the proper time; and for this, coupled with the slovenly way in which he had done the work, together with is overdraft of wages, he claimed compensation to the amount of 1l. The information was laid under the recent Act, which gives the defendant in a case like the present the option of being sworn as a witness. Defendant elected to adopt this course, and. on being sworn, positively denied having entered into an agreement to cut any specific quantity of wood, and stated that he was merely sent by the complainant to assist a man named Underwood, who was working in the copse. Complainant, on being recalled, admitted that he was aware that defendant and Underwood had agreed to work together, and he did not object to their doing so, but his original agreement with the defendant was that he should cut a "course" of the copse himself.—The magistrates, after a very lengthened hearing; decided that the complainant having consented to the two men working together amounted to a waiver of the original agreement, and dismissed the summons. The Chairman, however, told the defendant that the magistrates considered that he had behaved very ill in the matter, and cautioned him as to his future conduct.
NON-PAYMENT OF POOR-RATES.—Joshua Jolliffe appeared to answer a summons for the non-payment of a poor-rate of 3l. 3s., for the parish of Greatham. Defendant said he would save the time of the magistrates by at once admitting the validity of the rate as far as regarded its being duly made, allowed, and published, but he denied liability, on the ground of his not being an occupier at the time the rate was made. His tenancy of the premises for which he was rated expired on the 29th of September last, and the rate was made on the 1st of October, and allowed by the magistrates on the 5th. It appeared, however, from the defendant's own showing, that, by some arrangement with his landlord, he held the feed of some grass land up to Christmas, which the magistrates held to be a beneficial occupation, rendering him liable for the rate in question, and made an order for payment of the same with costs, subject to the usual alternative of a distress warrant, the execution of such warrant to be suspended for a week.