A FIRE RAISER.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 987, 5 September 1903, Page 2

A FIRE RAISER.

THE SCOURGE OE A DISTRICT. Per Press Association i Invercargill, last night. The trial of Guiseppe Valli for setting fire to a stack of O’Dowd, settler, at Nightcaps, was concluded this afternoon, the jury returning a verdict of guilty. The assumed reason for the crime was that O’Dowd had countermanded an agreement entered into with ono Reid that his mill should thresh stacks, whou he found that Valli was Reid’s partner, and that the act was one of revenge. Detective Mclnveney, in reply to Mr J. P. M. Fraser as to the prisoner's character, said that for 10 years he had been a scourge to the district. No man had given more trouble to the police. Time after time mills and stacks had been burned, and I he (the detective) could arrive ad no other conclusion than that tho prisoner had caused them. There had been many other acts of mischief, such as cutting saddlery, mutilating horses’ tails and manes, and these acts had been almost directly traceable to prisoner, who had also been susspected of theft. Prisoner said he had not been guilty of any of these things. The Judge said he would not attach so much weight- to the statements of the police as to the general aspect of the crime. The sentence would bo three years.