WAR REGULATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 105, 3 May 1917, Page 4

WAR REGULATIONS.

"C'.-TE-ISrDEX.S' APPEAX. FROM MAGISTRATE'S FINDING. ALLOWED BY SUPREME COURT. Judgment was delivered by his Honor Mr. Justice Sim at the Supreme Court this morning in the ease in which Oliver No_kes appealed against his wJnviotion and sentence in the Magistrate's Court to eleven months' imprisonment on a charge of making an utterance intended to interfere with the unloading of an oversea steamer. His Honor stated that the appeal was in the nature of a re-trial and a decision had to be arrived at by this Court independently of the magistrate's finding. His Honor pointed out" that the existing award allowed the engagement of men from 7.30 a.m. till 5 p.m.. although ordinary work did not start till S o'clock. A number of -waterside workers thought that men Bhoreki not be engaged until 8 o'clock, and had refused to go into the waiting re.m I before that hour. The appellant was one of these, and the words he ad- . dressed to Wood were intended, no • doubt, to express his disapproval of Wood's conduct in accepting an engage- ; men t before that hour. The question to be determined was whether or not they could be treated as having been uttered with any intention beyond that. A man, I continued his Honor, must be taken to intend the natural consequences of his own acts, and if the natural consequence of the words uttered by the appe___t, if they were heeded, would 'be to interfere with the proper unloading of the steamer, then they might be treated as having been uttered with the intention of producing that result. It seemed to his Honor, however, that the words could not reasonably be treated as having been uttered with -that intention. The only effect they could be expected to produce on Wood's mind, if they were to affect his conduct _4 all, would be to induce him to abstain from accepting any engagement before 8 o'clock. In that way, possibly, his working hours might be reduced by a few minutes each day, and the result migiht be to delay the loading or unloading of a steamer. But this result was so remote and indirect that without some direct evidence of intention, it could not be treated, his Honor thought, as haying been in the mind of the speaker when he uttered the words in question. And •fahere was no such direct evidence, nor was there any evidence from which it could 'be inferred that the appellant had in hi. mind the subject of the leading or discharge of the steamers then in port. He did not make any similar remarks to any of the other men, who, like Wood, had accepted an engagement before S o'clock. His Honor stated that he was unable to see in the words anything more than an offensive expression of the appellant's disapproval of Wood's conduct in connection with the question of the hour of engagement, and they were, spoken, he thought, without amy idea or intention of influencing Wood's conduct in the matter. The appeal would therefore be allowed and the= information dismissed. Dr. H. Di Barnford appeared for the appellant, and Mr. Setwyii Mays for the Crown.