A pawnbroker of Suokiang Road was charged with wilfully setting fire to his promises, thereby endangering life and pr erty, and atteinytins to defraud certain insurance Compant Inspector Matheson told the Court, that: at 3.15 a.m. on the 28th inst. a fire broke out in prisoner's premises, which was extinguished by the brigade without much damage having occurred. The accused was brought to the Central Station and there questioner by the Inspector, who consider. ed his answers unsatisfactory. He stated that he was out. at certain hours, which would be denied by w.tnesses. At 3. a.m. a neighbour told the accused that his shop was on fire, aad he replied Kk pt
the flumes. (Questioned at the station he et," and made no effort ty extinguish said he had no money, but on being searched over Tls. 100 were found upon him. The Inspector made an examination of the premises and found that the contents were not worth more than Tls. 190, while the accused had two policies for'a total Tls. 2,200 on the contents. On the 25th and 26th inst. four or five barrow lows ut effects were removed from t'¢ shop, and was believed that they were disposed of desiers.. There were no cooking utensils on the premises.
eral witnesses were called, and the accused made a statement, aiter which the Assessor sai the cass would be adjourned! until Monday xt to allow of a proper valuation hein nie of the contents of the shop.
Trespass.
The case, adjourned from Friday last for the appearance of witnesses, in which Mrs. Wilson proceeded against a painter for trespass: on her premises, was concluded this morning, when the accused was sentenced to 200 blows, the Assessor remarking that the witnesses had not improved the plaintiff' case very much.
Stealing Coa'.
Two laodah and four boatmen were charged with stealing tive tons of coal from Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Ca.
Mr. L. E. P. Jones, who appeared for the plaintiffs, stated that the men were the crews of some cargo beals thai ha been employed to put coal aboard Fl_M. Alacrity. and that when the coaling operations finished for the night, at 12 p.n., there were five tons of coal left on ithe boats. The prisoners, however, instead of delivering the coal up to its rightful owners, transferred it to the coolies' quarters of one of the boats, and said that is had all been put aboard the Alacrity. Meanwhile Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Ca., having ascertained that the coal had been left over, proceeded to make en-tumes regarding its whereabouts, and these resulted in the discovery of two tons of the coal, hidden on one of the boats. The chief engineer of the Alacrity had left a letter stating that five tons of coal were shut out, so that three tons were unaccounted for. That had probably been disposed of to some receiver. The coal was of a superior quality, and consequently valuable.
After hearing the evidence of Mr. Ross, of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Ca., and Inspector Mellows, of the River Police, the Court sentenced the two laodahs to 500 blows, one month's cangue and nine months' imprisonment each, and the four boatmen wer: ordered to receive 500 blows apiece.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.