ROUNDING UP THE HARPIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 126, 28 May 1917, Page 7

ROUNDING UP THE HARPIES.

CAMPAIGN" AOAINiST FORTCXKTELLERS. The police in the Australian cities have commenced a campaign against what one magistrate described as "a lot of harpies, preying on tho anxiety and lore of relatives of the men who are Renting at. the front." These "harpies" are women, generally described nx fortunetellers, who profess to advise people, generally women, as to the fate in store for men who have gone to the front.

Ignite a haul was mnde by tho .\_olbourne police. On a recent day. mx wotnen wore lined lip 'before the magistrate on charges of "having unlawfully used certain subtle craft." Each of tho defendants registered on indignant "Not. guilty."' but. the police witnesses )<-.t;i----lysed their defence. Tho police had sent around amongst tht»so frvrtiine-toIler« a Mrs. Connor, and her daughter, Miss Connor, ami each 'had received, in ri— uru for _/(! and 5/-, much interesting information aibout husband, brother or son at ihe front.—irrespective of the fart that the o/ldiT lady was a -widow, with no eon, and the. younger was not married. Sotno of the angry ladies, in the witness-box. showed a tendency to call down upon tho heads of the police agents the wrath of hoaven, and to pronounce curses of a kind calculated to curdle the blood, but the magistrate displayed no fear of the supernatural, and kept the defendants stern-lv to the ibusincs- before the Court.

'How did you expect to get a truth-1 fill reading from mc when you came to mc with a lying mi--?" asked one for-tune-teller of Miss Connor. "You told mc 1 had a brother at the front," said Miss Connor. 'And you were too ladylike to contradict her';" interposed the magistrate, amid laughter. "1 am a magnetic healer," said another defendant. "I would like you to explain to mc what subtle craft is." "I wiU tell you," said the magistrate. "You told these people deliberate and wicked untruths with a view to obtaining their money." In ail except one case the women were fined £15, in default two months' imprisonment. In the other case, a fine of £10 was imposed, or one month's imprisonment. The mag-istra-te said that tbe crime was a "dastardly wicked thing," and. if the law ' permitted it, imprisonment without any option would have more justly met the case.