THE BLUE TERROR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 252, 21 October 1908, Page 5

THE BLUE TERROR.

(Continued from page 4.) The case was brought before Mr. C. C. Kettle, SM-, this afternoon. "Why did the. man send a form like the one produced? Why did he not write an ordinary letter to the woman?" asked Mr. Kettle. Mr. Brookfield said that in New South Wales, -where were the headquarters of defendant's firm, an Act was in existence that made it necessary, before a magistrate g»-we judgment in a debt case, that a formal demand had been made by the creditor. That was how the form came to be used. He argued, however, that no person would be misled by such a form into the belief that it was a document with legal effect. Mr. Kettle expressed the opinion that it was quite clear that the document was one of those which the new Act was intended to prohibit being issued and served. There is no doubt that the document, upon being received by an uneducated and ignorant person, with the royal arms at the head, and so on, and on Une paper, upon which all summonses, at all events in the lower Court, are printed, would lead to the belief that it was a document which had some legal effect," said his Worship, who added, "If a person wrongfully retains goods or fails to discharge a reasonable debt, it is a very simple thing to write an ordinary business letter making demand for payment or goods. There is no necessity to resort to a document of this kind. It i» clear that the object of it is purely to frighten people to whom it is sent. Is it the first prosecution of the kind?" Mr. Marsack: The first of the kind in Auckland, but there have been several in Wellington. Mr. Kettle: Well, being the first prose cation, defendant will be fined 5/- and costs.