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ARMIDALE CIRCUIT COURT.  

(Abridged from the Armidale Express.)

SATURDAY; APRIL 11,

(Before Mr. Justice Hargrave.)

The Court re-opened at ten o'clock.   George Parker, charged with stealing £2, two boxes of matches, a handkerchief, and a shirt, the pro- perty of Ludwig Glocke, pleaded not guilty. The prisoner, with another man, who had since bolted, and two women bad come to Glocke's place one night, with drink, and asked him to join them. He refused to do so. The other man and one woman went away during the night, but Parker and the other woman remained till the morning. In the course of the night, Parker pulled Glocke about, and shortly afterwards Glocke missed the £2 from his trousers pocket. A box belonging to him was broken open during the visit of Parker and the woman, and everything in it taken out. Glocke waa an old man,   a German, living by himself . The morning after the alleged robbery, Parker had gone away, but returned subsequently, with some clothes belonging to Glocke which he had taken away. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to two years imprisonment, with hard labour, in Maitland gaol.

Emi Captain, a Chinaman, charged with an un- natural offence, was acquitted

Robert Momus,aforeigner, was indicted for stealing a pea-jacket,a p urof moleskin trouser' a black cloth waistcoat, and other articles, the property of \Y illiam Bussell He pleaded not guilty On the 24th March, pnsoner and Russell were at Mr Foran's boarding house at Armidale, in the evening, and bad some conversation Prisoner left on the following morning, and then Russell missed the articles enumerated Pn«oner was arrested at Uralla, and

-^the articles were found in his swag The prisoner

^^^.ade a long address to the jurj and stated that he. J.

F~\ purchased the goods from Ru8«elL TA* ji rj T/victed the pnsoner w^-w8s"then sentenced to £%i>year?tttaí -i Maitland gaol

Henry C ire, s Tom Carej, was convicted for forging anoraer tor the paj ment of ¿8 14s with intent to defraud Prisoner was arrested on Feb 19, bj senior constable Lang, for passing a forged cheque on Edward Cassidy, of Newton Boyd Road The pnsoner had been otajing at Cossidj's place in January, on or about the 2nd, he gave Cassidy a cheque for ¿8 14s, in payment for Some glasses, saying it was all right, and was signed bj a pound keeper at Tamworth Cassidy cashed the cheque The name signed was " John O'Rourke," and the cheque was on the Bank of New South Wales at Tamworth Evidence was given tnot no such person as John O Rourke had an account there, John Henry O'Rourke had an account, and the cheque was drawn upon one of the forms from John Henry O Rourke's cheque book.-John H O'Rourke deposed that in October la9t prisoner was at his place, and nad pro- cured a blank cheque form The cheque produced was wntten on that form Prisoner could neither read nor write, according to his own statement to O Rourke-After deliberation, the jury found the pnsoner guilty of uttenng, and his Honor sentenced him to two years' imprisonment, with hard labour,

in Maitland cool

Robert William Harnngton pleaded no1 guilty to indictments charging him with having unlawfullj and maliciously attempted to stab Wm Geo Tol worthy, and with committing a common assault Both prosecutor and pnsoner were emploj ed at the Inverell Dispatch office as compositors, and on the 9th February, while Tolworthy was at work, Harnngton came ra and said " Tolworthj, are you going to put me out?" Tolworthy Bald be wanted nothing to say to him. Harrington then pulled a sheath knife from his belt, and saying ' Do you see this, j ou-, it's going into your-heart'" made a blow at Tol- worthj. Tolworthy however caught his arm, and Harnngton fell on the floor The knife was after- wards picked up by a boy in the office Tolworthj admitted that each of them (Harnngton and himself) had a feeling that one was trying to work the other out of a billet in the office He disavowed any such intention on bis own port Pnsoner was not sober, or he would not, in Tolwor'hj s opinion, have made the attempt to stab Tolworthy also wore a sheath knife similar to Harnngton's Prisoner, ra addressing the jury, attempted to extenuate his conduct by alleging that he was so drunk at the time of the occurrence as to be unaware of what he was doing He was very sorrj for what had happened and had no ill feeling against Tolworthy. Thejurj convicted the pnsoner on the first count, and recommended him to mercy on account of the length of time he had been in gaol Pnsoner was sent to armidale gaol for three months, with hard labour

John Munro was charged with stealing a bank de- posit receipt for ¿30 and ¿1 14s from Robert Patterson He pleaded not guiltj The pnsoner was in the employ of Patterson, a farmer, and on the 14th March Patterson brought a bottle of schnapps from Armidale, and drank several glasses, giving Munro some also Patterson then became sick and stupid , and Munro helped him to a stretcher, where he fell asleep. On the morning afterwards when he awoke he found Munro absent, and missed ¿115s or ¿1 lbs from his pockets, and a bank deposit receipt for ¿30 from a box usuallj kept locked, but then opened and the key put in another than its ordinary place. Munro bad in the mean time come to Armi

dale, charged a ¿1 note at an hotel, and offered the publican the deposit receipt as a cheque The prosecutor denied that be had sent Munro to Armi- dale to change the receipt, and bnng out more drink, as the pnsoner, in a wntten statement alleged

ITisoDer was convnted, and sentenced to three months' hard labour in Armidale gaol

Ah Sing, a Chinaman, pleaded not guiltj to an indictment charging him with having wounded Wil- liam Jones with intent One evening the prose- cutor was talking to Mrs Hart, when the prisoner threw stones at him One stone struck lum, and he chased pnsoner, and was stooping to pick up something with which to knock prisoner down, when prisoner turned round, put one arm about him, and with the other hand stabbed him on the left side of the back The wound caused blood to flow profusely The defence was a suggestion that the person who threw the stones ?nd committed the assault was Hart, who was jealous of his wife, and opposed to her holding anj conversation with other men, but prosecutor was positive of prisoner s iden- tity with the person who had stabbed him, and said that he did not know of Hart being jealous of his wife, as suggested The wound was a dangerous one Mr Buchanan, the Police Magistrate of Ar- midale, spoke of the pnsoner as bearing the repu- tation of a verj good servant, inoffensive and peace- able The jury convicted the pnsoner, and his

Honor sent bim to Maitland gaol for two j ears' hard

labour.

Alexander McLennan and James Marks were in dieted for stealing three logs of cedar, the property of James Benson and others Benson and James and John Frisby were partners as cedar cutters at the Bellinger River, and the partners had had some timber felled on land adjacent to land belonging to prisoner McLennan Three logs of this cedar were spiked by Benson in October, 1873, and thej then bore the brand of himself and James Frisby In January, 1874, Benson saw these same three logs of cedar higher up the nver, on M'Lennan's land, newly dressed and with M'Len nan's brand on tbem The prosecutor had told M'Lennan that they (meaning himself and Frisby ) intended to spike all their timber The prisoner Marks had told John Frisby that he was rafting   cedar for Webster, a man who had also been charged, and was under committal for stealing the same timber This Webster was called as a witness for the Crown, and stated that he had squared four cedar logs for M'Lennan, who had given him direc   tions where to find them The logs were on M'Len- nan's 'and when he first saw them He had been committed for stealing the timber in question He had never assumed any ownership in the logs, nor instructed anyone to brand them He had advised   that the logs should be canted over into the nver, and so let Fnsby have them The witness admitted having written a letter respecting the cedar-In defence, Alfred Marks was called, who said that Webster had emplojed his brother Joseph (the pri

soner Marks) to cant the logs in for him, as he said old John Fnsby was dogging his steps, and he could not do it himself The letter wntten by Webster, and already alluded to, was relied upon It was wntten to John McKay, and recommended that the chips taken off the logs when dressed should be branded with his brand (AT in circle) BO that their production at the trial would prove his ownership of the timber He also suggested the line of examination to be taken at the trial, and stated that if all that he suggested were done, McLennan and Marks would come off with flying colors, and would have an action against Frisby and Benson Other evidenoe was given to show that Webster had employed Marks to dress the   timber, and that he said he would get McLellan to draw " it in " Webster had claimed the cedar he had referred to, saying he had sold it to the man Fnsby, who had neglected to pay for it The prisoners were

acquitted.

The court adjourned.

MONDAY, APBIL 13.

The court re-opened at ten o'clock.

Thomas Webster, indicted for stealing cedar, was" released on his own recognizance to appear for trial

when called upon.

Joseph Allen, a half-caste, indicted for stealing a saddle, bndle, and breastplate, the property of Thomas Neil, pleaded not guiltv On Januarj 27 Neil was at a public-house in Armidale, and left his horse with saddle and bridle on in front of the hotel. After a short absence he returned, and missed horse and all Subsequentlj the horse esme back, without the saddle and bndle, and these articles were found by the police in the possession of the pnsoner, and with Neil's marks cut out of the skirts Pri- soner gave an account of his possession of them which was sworn to be false In defence, pnsoner called witnesses, who swore that they had seen two other men cutting the saddle identified as Neil s, and afterwards selling it to prisoner Certificates of good character were handed in bj the pnsoner, who addressed the jurj The pnsoner was acquitted

Emi Captain, a chinaman, was convicted of having committed an unnatural offence, and was sentenced to two years' hard labour in Maitland gaol

This concluded the cnminal business, and the court adjourned previous to the commencement of the

civil business j

COhSTBUCTiON OF A DAM -Sir-I expected to see several answers to the correspondent in the Queenslander of March 14, who asked information about the construction of dams, for works of this kind are quite common, and, in so far as I have seen, EBrfectly successful when built with ordinary core.

ike your correspondent I wanted a dam at the head of a creek ; it was a dry gully, m my case, m drj weather. The soil is- alluvial, nch on the surface, ?with clay of great depth underneath. My dam is 41 feet across st the highest point, and goes nght acrots the water-course The water, when full, is 10 feet deep. We commenced bj' digging a trench six feet wide and four feet deep, to bnng us to the claj- down the sides and across the bottom. Then we worked up, as puddle, clay and soil from an adjoining bank, and built a wall about three feet thick to enclose the whole water-course. We rammed it as we went oi, and also the soil put m front and behind to bring it up in a gradual slope. The whole thickness at the bottom is 14 feet, at the top it is about 5 feet, the wall of puddled claj' coming up through the centre. The whole is about three feet higher than high water when the dam is full. It is now covered with grass. The storm water is let off at the side, over solid ground, covered with grass. There has been no

trouble with the dam since it was built-Yours, Ac,

INDOOBOOITLLT

Locusts are beginning to make tkeir appearance ¡n some of the country districts of Victoria,

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