MOTOR-CYCLE RACING ON FORESHORE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 151, 20 March 1924, Page 4

MOTOR-CYCLE RACING ON FORESHORE

POLICE PROSECUTION FAILS Bi- Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, March 19. A prosecution against a member of the Pioneer Sports Club lor motorcycle racing on North Beach Jas d.sniissed an the grounds that tho toreshore was below high water-mark, and was not a public place within the meaning of section 2 of the Police Offences Act, 1908. Defendant was Leonard Poore, and the charge was that on January 12 he furiously drove a motor-cycle en North Beach. Mr. Wyvern Wilson, SDL, in hia reserved judgment given to-day, said that the racing was held on a portion of tho beach not vested in the New Brighton Borough Council lor recreation purposes. It was not a place of public resort, open to or used by tho public “as of right.” Prinia facie, the Crown was entitled to every jiortian of the foreshore. In New Zealand, matters jiertaiiiing to the foreshore of these islands were administered by the Minister of Marine, and tho public had no legal right to tho use of the foreshore. Tho Pioneer Sports Club had qbtained the consent and approval of the Marine Department to the holding of the races, and defendant seemed to have been doing no wong in competing.