NOT WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 18, 22 January 1926, Page 6

NOT WANTED.

JNDESIRABLE VISITORS. BEFORE POLICE COURT. TO RETURN BY MARAMA. "These two men are professional pickpockets, each with long criminal histories in Australia," said' Chief Detective j Cummings in introducing to Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., at the Police Court this morning, Harry Smith and Phillip Ensworth Smith, two young men, both of whom were presented for sentence on i charges of trespassing on the Takapuna I racecourse during the progress of a race j meeting and with being idle and dis- j orderly persons who habitually consorted with reputed thieves. The chief detective added that the Smiths had come here from Australia. They had convictions recorded against them for various offences in nearly all the Australian States, and had served numerous terms of imprisonment. They had now agreed to leave Xew Zealand by the Marama this afternoon, and the matter rested with the magistrate to decide. Mr. Poynton: Have they any money to pay their own fares? Chief Detective CummingS: Oh, yes, sir, they have plenty, and can talk in hundreds. Mr. Poynton then delivered his reserved judgment respecting the charge of racecourse trespass brought against the Smiths. Their convictions were in Australia, and not in New Zealand. Were they excluded from racecourses on account of Such convictions? It was a principle of jurisprudence that generally a person could not be punished in one country for a crime committed in another one, said Mr. Poynton. The New Zealand Crimes Act purported to make a man liable for the crime of bigamy wherever committed. But it was held that it could not do so. Again, under the Police Offences Act vagrancy was punishable with a greater severity for a second offence. A man convicted in Queensland of vagrancy held that a conviction there would not enable a Court in New Zealand to inflict punishment as for a second offence. "Did this well-known principle apply to the exclusion of bad characters from our racecourses?" asked Mr. Poynton. Must the offences be committed in New ZeaJand? That he did not think was necessary, for excluding such men was not punishing them for crimes committed outside the Dominion. It was restricting slightly their movements within it, and such restrictions were in the nature of those imposed upon aliens. Race aliens were not excluded because they committed crimes elsewhere. They might be of the highest character and virtue, but their presence in large numbers would bo prejudicial to the peace, order, and good government of the Dominion. Again, said the inagTstrate, a man might be a good Englishman residing in Australia, out if he had been guilty of certain conduct he could be excluded or deported as an undesirable immigrant if lie came here. They were not punishing him for crimes committed in another country, but merely protecting others in the Dominion. "It would be absurd for us to ban our own people from racecourses for some trifling offence and admit rogues and scoundrels from other I countries," stated Mr. Poynton. "Hoi'B is a man who is declared to bo a professional pickpocket with a long list of convictions, which he admits. This sort of man should be kept off a racecourse. He is an undesirable immigrant, banned from entrance to the Dominion. Looking at the intention of the Act. I think a innn convicted of theft, wherever committed, comes under the regulations." Mr. Poynton. on the charge of trespass, fined each accused £5 and costs, while he convicted and ordered then , , to come up for eentence when called upon on the charges of vagrancy. Each Avill he kept in custody and placed on board the Marama when that vessel leaves Auckland for Sydney this evening.