HELD ADMISSIBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 67, 20 March 1937, Page 12

HELD ADMISSIBLE.

STATEMENTS TO POLICE. PRODUCTION* AS EVIDENCE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Friday. The question was decided by Mr. H. W. Bundle, S.M., in the Police Court to-day ot the admissibility as evidence of statements given to police by defendants. The question arose first on December 18, when two men, who were r<presented by Mr. A. (i. Neill, pleaded not guilty to being unlawfully after hours on licensed premises, and the licensee of the hotel, for whom Mr. Neill also appeared, entered a similar j>lea on churges of selling liquor after hours, exposing liquor for sale alter hours, and keeping his premises open after hours for the sale of liquor. The refusal of Senior-Sergeant Packer during the original hearing of the case to allow statements given by the defendants to be produced as evidence, and the insistence of the magistrate that, if counsel for the defendants were not allowed to examine them, the case would not be proceeded with, brought about an unusual situation, the hearing being eventually adjourned to enable SeniorSergeant Packer to place the matter before the superintendent. When the cases were called this morning, Mr. F. H. Adams appeared for the prosecution and outlined the reasons why the police were unwilling to produce i statements in such cases. The magistrate j finally decided that papers should be produced when the question came up of j how they were obtained.