JUDICIAL INQUIRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 28 February 1923, Page 9

JUDICIAL INQUIRY.

THE EDEN PETITION.

REARING CONCLUDED,

JUDGMENT ON MONDAY

The decision of their Honors Mr. i___ot Hosking nnd Mr. Justice Etrinaer will be given at Auckland on Wav in the Eden electoral petition, .faring of which concluded at the Sn-reme Court at «.3n p.m. yesterday. £ C. P- Skerrctt, K.C., addressing .he Court, said the payment made by he Ml** was a legal payment under , Act A * to trl,a '> ll^-, • ]t would be „,«ssary for the petitioner to prove that the candidate by himself or by his .(tents gave or provided meat or entert.innient, or paid for it, and also to ,U0 that it was done corruptly. It mm!- further have to be proved that •he purpose was to corruptly influence ~,y person to give or refrain from Jirina a vote at the election. It was _uite%lear that Mr. Parr did not himie!f (live, or provide, or pay for any r»rt Pf * he entertainment. Counsel submitted that none of the Indies was agent for Mr. Parr. It was not Bijjgsstea they were on his commitL fhPref° re whatever their acts— !S tjiey appeared to be unobjectiong hic—they were not done by them as ,wnts of" Mr. Pair. When the candidate arrived he could not do anything hut vj-ld to Mr. Shepherd's suggestion that*be should deliver a short speech „ n social subjects. Had it beetj established that Mr. Parr's election committee used tlie ladies as a meFe cloak for __, purpose of providing entertainment »miP tI y ?

PETITIONER'S ARGUMENT. ■ Jb: A. G. Qtiartley, for the petitioner, _ai. his case was that an innocent act fluid be turned into a guilty act by the ipni in tbe wa y ne acted. He stressed the point that when the invitations \«ot drafted the word "election" had been written on the paper and then deleted: That suggested that the idea e| the election committee was in the -jnd of the, person preparing the invitaIjgii fgrda, If Mr. Parr used a meeting for tie purpose of getting votes, then jkt meeting, which might have been rgneeived in innocence, was born in sin. }h\ Pirr should not have spoken at the dithering. Jlr. Justice Stringer: He would have been all right if he had not opened his jjeufli except to take strawberries aud cr»*m. Jtfr. Justice Hosking: \\ bat harm is (Jen) if a candidate came into a garden Mtjy and availed himself of the opportunity?'" )lr, Justice Stringer: The same could lie *ppli«! to a Salvation Army band, if jit. candidate found a crowd and took (yjuuitige ef the opportunity to address h P*°P le - As stated above, the Court reserved ill judgment until Monday.