NO PERMIT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2669, 14 January 1916, Page 6

NO PERMIT

<9 POLIOE, PASSENGER, AND J.P. Matliematics in a miltl form are not beyond the range ol' members of the New Zealand Police Force. This has boen amply demonstrated by the results of Departmental examinations, and ail ordinary police .officer may be expected to figure out the meaning of '■ a birth certificate. ' llore than that, his knowledge of law is probably as good as that of the ordinary J.P. These few r<anarl;s may serve as an introduction to a little incident, which occurred on Jervois Quay last evening, prior to the departure of the s.s. Manuka for Sydney.

The principal parties to the incident were a young man, who intended to take passage by the boat, a J.PSergeant Wade, and other police officers. The young man was not arilied with a permit to leave, and the police therefore objected to his departure. The young man protestod that he was under 18 years of age, and was merely leaving on a holiday trip with his mother. Sergeant Wade expressed the opinion that the young man was of military ago, and on that account must postpone his trip, the War Regulations being the stumbling block. At this stag© the J.P. interposed with some heat that the police were exceeding their duty, that the young man was not in need of a permit, that lio was under the age, and that his birth certificate (produced) was the proof of this. Sergeant Wade's reply was a further reference to the War Regulations, and a hint that the birth certificate was really useless without evidence of identification. The serpeant perused the certificate, however, and pointed out that it did no more than decide the case against the young man. His date of birth was shown as somewhere in,' November, 1897, and, by. simple arithmetic, and the application of the law, he was_ debarred from leaving without a permit. He missed his passago, and the J.P. lost the argument.