 |
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
[embezzlement - larceny - convict service, transfer of]
R. v. Moring Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land Pedder C.J., 28 July 1825 Source: Hobart Town Gazette,[1] 12 August 1825
John James Moring was indicted for the embezzlement and larceny of a watch, a pound of tobacco, and a watch key, the property of the prosecutor, Richard Holmes. - Richard Holmes stated the circumstances of the embezzlement of the articles in question; that the prisoner was in his service; that he allowed him sometimes to work for himself for his own support; that he was occasionally supplied with provisions by witness; that he was one of the men let by Government to the Rev. Mr. Bedford, for the improvement of the Glebe land at Clarence Plains; that Mr. Bedford, knowing the witness was in want of a man, was so good as to lend him to witness, until he could get him regularly transferred to him; that he believes he was so transferred, but he has no certificate of it; that Mr. Bedford promised to see it done. Mr. Ambrose Boyd. - I am clerk in the Police Office; I know the prisoner by his having frequently applied for passes at the Police Office, to go to Mr. Holmes, at Clarence Plains. I do not know whether he is assigned to Mr. Holmes, or whether he was lent to him as an indulgence. [The Court waited for a considerable time, in order to ascertain from the proper office, whether the prisoner had ever been transferred from the service of Mr. Bedford to the prosecutor; but at length His Honor proceeded in the trial, without this point being determined.] Prisoner's defence. - I bought the watch of the prosecutor for £3, to be paid by debts owing to me, which the prosecutor was to receive. The tobacco I was to receive for wages, as I was not his servant; I was, and still am, the servant of the Rev. Mr. Bedford. I received no other reward for my services but the lb. of tobacco. Verdict - Not Guilty.[2] His Honor the Chief Justice strongly animadverted upon the very improper conduct of persons to whom crown servants are assigned, allowing them to be upon their own hands, and to work for themselves. His Honor stated that this system was in direct variance with the orders of Government, and in contravention of the Acts of Parliament relative to transportation, and that he should certainly represent this case to the Government.
Notes [1] There were two newspapers called the Hobart Town Gazette at this time (see EM Miller, Pressmen and Governors: Australian Editors and Writers in Early Tasmania, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1975, at 177). This one became the Colonial Times later in 1825. [2] Moring was sent to the Prisoners' Barracks, AOT SC 41/1. |
|
|||||
|