MAYOR’S COURT.
This Day. (Before His Worship the Mayor and J. Brown, Esq., J.P.)
DRUNKENNESS.
William Henderson and Neil Cummings were each fined 5s; Thomas Davis 10s; and for breaking a pane of glass in a brothel in Walker street, 7s (>d John Sullivan 40s or 14 days imprisonment; and Daniel Mair was discharged with a caution.
Vagrancy.
James Conroy was sentenced to a week’s hard labor for soliciting alms in George street.
Attempted suicide.
Mary Cameron, a notoriously abandoned character, was charged with this offence. It appeared from the evidence that on the evening of the 20th inst. the prisoner went to the shop of Mr Bagley, chemist, George street, and asked for an ounce of laudanum for the toothache. She was served by Mr Bagley junior, who noticed that she was rather excited, but unable to discern whether she was sober or not; he gave her the laudanum in a small bottle, on which he put a printed label “laudanum - poison,” at the same directing her to saturate the wadding he gave her with it, and place a portion in the hollow of her tooth and a portion in her ear. Not liking the woman’s appearance, he mixed a grain or two of tartar emetic in the laudanum. The woman went from the shop to the Royal George Hotel; in the bar of which she obtained a glass, and, pouring the laudanum into it, drank it off at a draught. A Mr Muligan, who it appears has known her for the last three years, observed her movements, and he sprang over his counter to prevent her. She said to him, “I have taken laudanum: there's the bottle." He at once sent for the police and on the arrival of Sergeant Neil he found her lying on the footpath in Frederick street. She said to the officer that it was "a bad job.” She was conveyed to the hospital where strong emetics were given her, and she quickly recovered. It was stated by Dr Yates that she had been in the hospital three times before, suffering from delirium tremens; and by Serg. Thompson that he had been informed that she had told the nurse who attended her that she would again attempt to destroy her life. Prisoner now stated that she took the laudanum to produce sleep; a frequent practice with her. The police applied for a remand until Friday, which was granted. -Evenin Star, 26/7/1871.
Notorious Characters. — Ann Sherry was, charged on the information of Sergeant Dean, with having no lawful means of support. Mr Lewis appeared for the accused. There were three other women charged with similar offences, but counsel objected to the present case being heard with them. Mr Pyke: I have always held in this kind that the law calls upon accused to show that they have visible means of support. It is not for the Police to prove a; negative. — Mr Lewis regarded it as a monstrous thing for a person to be brought into Court to answer a charge of this kind without a prima facie case having first been made out. He did not think it was a fair construction of the section under which accused was charged. — Mr Pyke: It is a literal construction. After further argument, Mr Pyke said Mr Lewis could appeal to the Supreme Court. — Sergeant Dean said that on Friday, the 2nd inst., he went to a house situated off Great King street, belonging to a Mrs Monson, and in the occupation of Ann Sherry. It was a one-roomed tenement, and in it were five women — prisoner, Ann Manning, Ellen Dufty, Rose Jackson, and Mary Cameron. He had known accused for the last twelve years, during which time she had earned great notoriety as a thief and vagrant. — Detective Bain gave corroborative evidence. In answer to Mr Lewis, accused said she had money in the Savings Bank, and produced her bank book showing that she had drawn from the account. Jane Hamilton Blackie, Rose Jackman, and Mary Cameron were also charged under the Vagrant Act, with having no lawful means of support. — Inspector Mallard stated that the Police had prosecuted with the intention of breaking up this den. — Blackie said, she had been in Dunedin two years, subsisting on L90 earned in service, and L30 sent by her brother. It was her intention of going to her uncle in the country. Rose Jackman informed the Court that he husband maintained her. — Mary Cameron placed herself under the protection of the Governor of the Gaol, who, she said, had been taking care of her for a fortnight. — previous convictions were proved against all the prisoners, Sherry having some thirty or forty recorded against her. Sherry and Jackman were each sentenced to three months imprisonment. Cameron and Blackie were both sentenced to two months' imprisonment. -Otago Daily Times, 9/6/1876.
The body of Mary Cameron, a prostitute, was found in the Water of Leith this morning, having apparently been in the water only ten or fifteen hours. -Western Star, 12/8/1876.
INQUEST.
An inquest was held at the Hospital at noon to-day, before the District Coroner (Mr T. M. Hocken) and a jury, upon the body of a woman named Mary Cameron, who was found dead near the mouth of the Water of Leith on Friday morning. From the evidence — which was given by Albert Beck, Andrew Smith Wilson. Geo. Fufflett, John Haydon, Mary Carter, and Sergeant Dean — it appeared that the deceased left the gaol on Wednesday last, having completed a sentence for vagrancy. On Thursday morning she went to the Hospital for medicine. Smith, the medical dispenser, refused to supply her as Dr Tates had not prescribed, but told her to wait for a few minutes till the doctor came in. She, however, did not wait, saying that she would come back shortly. It is evident that she immediately went to Scanlan’s Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock Hotel, as the time she was at the Hospital, and the time she arrived at the hotel, nearly correspond. The last that was seen of her was by John Haydon, proprietor of the Star and Garter Hotel, Albany street, she having gone to that hotel about four o'clock on Thursday afternoon, and asked for leave to sit down and wait for the train, which was granted. While there she asked for some drink, which Mr Haydon refused, as she had no money to pay for it. About half an hour after her arrival Mr Haydon went into the room which she sat down in to see if she was still there, but found that she had gone. Two or three minutes previous to this he observed from a window a woman pass in the direction of Harbor Terrace, which looked like deceased. Nothing further was seen of her until found the following morning by Albert Beck, who observed what he thought to be a bundle about twenty yards above the Forth street bridge, on the northern side of the Leith, Two or three articles of jewellery were found upon her, and one shilling. There were some marks on the back of the head, which looked like the effects of rats and crabs. The opinion was that she had fallen off the bank of the river, a distance of about 10ft, and as the Leith is covered with large, stones about the spot where deceased was found, had been unable to extricate herself. The jury found a verdict of “accidental death,” -Evening Star, 14/8/1876.
Dr Hocken held an inquest at the Dunedin Hospital yesterday, touching the death of Mary Cameron, who was found dead in the Water of Leith on Friday morning. Evidence was given which showed that the body was discovered in an eddy in the river about 25 yards above the Forth street bridge on Friday morning at 9.30, and appeared as if it had been washed down some distance. The deceased was last seen alive on the previous afternoon, and was then suffering from the effects of intemperance. She had led a disreputable life. The Coroner, in summing up, remarked that there were three ways by which deceased might have met with her death. She might have been thrown into the river, have fallen into it accidentally, or committed suicide. There was no evidence to point directly to any one of these three, and it would only be reasonable to presume she was accidentally drowned. Women of her class rarely committed suicide. They seemed to have no regret for the past or hope for the future, and lived but to drink and lead a vagrant life. A verdict of "Found drowned" was returned. -Otago Daily Times, 15/8/1876.
MEDICO CORONERS.
To the Editor.
Sir — There are several peculiar features in the inquest held yesterday on the body of Mary Cameron that require an explanation. It is rather singular that in a case of so suspicious a nature the medical gentleman who first saw the dead body, even before the constable, I believe, in the position in which it was found, and who took a note of the surrounding circumstance and who was certainly from the above facts the best qualified to give an opinion as to whether the death was brought about by accident, by suicide, or by homicide, should never be called as a witness, either by the police or the medical gentleman in active practice who acts as Coroner — though from the information conveyed it is difficult to see how either the police or the coroner can deny knowledge of the fact that such a gentleman had first seen the case. As this is not the first instance in which the evidence of those most competent to judge has appeared to be not required the authorities, I trust some explanation will be given.
Further, the Resident Surgeon of the Hospital must have known little of the propensities of rats, when he accounted for such serious and suspicious injuries to the poor unfortunate’s scalp and skull purely by the fall, rats, and crabs. The last is really ridiculous.
— I am, &c., Gympie. Dunedin, August 15. -Evening Star, 16/8/1876.
Mary Cameron is buried in Dunedin's Northern Cemetery, in an unmarked, pauper's grave.
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