STREET SPEAKING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 214, 10 September 1934, Page 8

STREET SPEAKING.

BY-LAW UPHELD. LABOUR SPEAKER CONVICTED. MAGISTRATE'S COMMEN P. V(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUX EDI X, this day. John Gilchrist, a, well-known Labour speaker, was convicted this morning .and fined £1 for delivering an address in a public street without a City Council permit. He was convicted without penalty for causing a street obstruction. The magistrate, Mr. IT. W. Bundle, in the course of a considered decision, held that the by-law was valid, and said that free speech meant no more than equal freedom to all citizens fully to express themselves, provided they did not offend against the law. The use of streets was primarily for the passage of the public, and the City Council, alive to the danger of congestion, had made a by-law restricting public speaking, which ho considered reasonable. Tlio proper setting for a political meeting, said the magistrate, was a hall or a reserve. The streets were formed to walk on. not to talk in. Counsel for defendant mentioned the possibility of an appeal, this depending on the decision in a similar Auckland case.