A COURT PUZZLE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12823, 18 August 1939, Page 7

A COURT PUZZLE

HOAV TO ADMINISTER AN OATH FOR A BUDDHIST Magistrate and officials at Glebe Court were bewildered recently as to how to administer the oath to a Buddhist. Ichigoro Yosheda, a Japanese laundryman, bowed' reverently towards the Bible. “You can’t swear on that,’’ said Mr Harrison, S.M. For five minutes the magistrate searched through books and records to find a way out, and then announced, “There’s nothing here; but there must be a way out.” An official was instructed to inquire at Central Police Court. During his absence, Yosheda’s solicitor, Mr Twigg, stood in court, trying to find out from Yosheda the Japanese method of taking the oath.

“What does he mean by clasping his hands and bowing his head?” asked the magistrate.

-Mr Twigg: H essays he means to worship Buddha,

Mr Harrison: Oh! We’ll try that

then. While Yosheda stood with hands clasped the magistrate said: “You will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” Yosheda: Yes. Mr Harrison: Is that binding, on

your conscience Yosheda: Yes. “I don’t know if it is the correct method, but it will have to do,” said Mr Harrison.

Yosheda was defending a charge of detention of a quilt, brought against him by Mrs Alice Scutts, of Leichhardt. .

Mrs Scutts said that the quilt was’ sent to Yosheda’s laundry on May 30, and when her son called for it on June 9, Yosheda said he had given it to. a little boy who had called.

Yosheda, in evidence, said that a boy who paid, him Is 6d had collected the quilt. Mr Harrison dismissed the case. “There seems no doubt you have a case against the defendant in another court, but not in this,” he said. ,

It was ascertained subsequently that the correct method of administering the oath to a Buddhist is The witness must hold a copy of the book “The Life of Buddha,” and repeat: “I declare in the presence of Buddha that I am an unprejudiced witness and if what I shall speak shall prove false or if by colouring truths others shall be led astray, then may the Holy Existences, Buddha, Damma, and Pro Sangha, in whose sight I now stand, together with the devotees of the 22 Firmaments, punish me and also my migrating soul.”