BASHAM CONVICTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 155, 4 July 1927, Page 8

BASHAM CONVICTED.

£10 FINE IMPOSED. BOOK WITH SEDITIOUS INTEXiXION. QUESTION" OF GUILTY MIND. ■2*«- - •Judgment was delivered at the Police Court this morning, by Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the ease against the well-known Communist, Albert Edward Basham, Mho was charged with selling a ; document, '-The Labour Monthly," which expressed a seditious intention. My. McKean said that it was not disputed that Basham sold the magazine. I find that it contains much extravagant language and some matter that is likely, and is, ho doubt, intended to raise discontent and promote feelings ot 411 will and hostility among different classes of the community," said the magistrate. For the defence, Mr. Sullivan tontended that if the magazine v. as sold by Basham in ignorance of its contents there could be no conviction. Basham had sworn that he had not Vead and had no knowledge of the contents of the magazine. Reliance was placed upon the decision of the Court of Appeal in the King v. Ewart case, in which it was held by a majority of judges that the language of the Offensive Publications Act, 1892, was such that the presumption of a guilty mind which trose on the sale of a newspaper containing indecent matter might be rebutted by evidence adduced by the accused. But the statute under consideration in that had been repealed, added the magis:rate. The Indecent Publications Act of 1892 now expressly provided that ibsence of guilty knowledge should not be a ..defence in a prosecution under the Act. The magistrate said that apart from legislation relating to indecent publications it had to be borne in mind that the regulation under which the proceedings had been brought was made at a time when there was a state of war. Emergency legislation, because of unusual conditions prevailing, was often drastic. When the scope and object of regulations were considered with reference' to the conditions obtaining at the time, he thought there could be little doubt that the regulation in question was intended to prohibit absolutely the distribution of literature advocating lawlessness or expressing a seditious intention. The common law doctrine that to constitute a crime there must be a guilty mind had therefore no application. Basham would be convicted and lined £10. Mr. J. J. Sullivan, who appeared for Basham, asked that security for appeal he fix,ed. Mr. McKean agreed, and fixed the security at £10 10/. At the original hearing, Mr. V. W. Hubble prosecuted.