IS IT ILLEGAL?

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 8, 4 October 1927, Page 6

IS IT ILLEGAL?

SELLING WEEKLY PAPER ON SUNDAY

MAY BE .LOOPHOLE IN ACT Palmerston North, October 3. An interesting legal question was brought under the notice of Mr. J. 1,. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-dav, when he was called upon to decide 'whether the act of distributing a weekly paper on Sunday was contrary to the requirements of the Act, or whether, coming under the heading of publishing a newspaper, it is one of the callings which may be carried ou on a Sunday without hindrance. The matter was raised when W. P. Casey was charged with transacting business on a Sunday. Senior-Sergeant O’Grady explained that on a recent Sunday defendant had been seen to cii-i ter an hotel with a copy of a Wellington sporting newspaper, published in Wellington every Saturday evening. According to Mr. IT. O. Cooper, who appeared for defendant, the act of distributing these newspapers was not an offence under the Statute. The preparing, printing, and publishing of a daily newspaper was a calling exempted from the requirements of the Act, and he contended that defendant had been doing nothing else but publishing the newspaper concerned. Counsel cited authorities to add weight to this contention, and pointed out, further, that an hotel on a Sunday was not a public place as defined by the Act. In addition, the particular paper in question had been paid for the day before, and thus there was no actual transaction of business on a Sunday.

Senior-Sergeant O'Grady, however, pointed out that the newspaper in question was not a daily, but a weekly newspaper. Further, the definition of a public place had recently been considerably extended, in such a manner, he claimed, as to include an hotel. An hotel was always open to the public on a Sunday, for one could obtain nieals or accommodation at auv hotel in New Zealand.

The Magistrate reserved his decision, pointing out that if there was a loophole in the Act defendant was perfectlj’ at liberty to take advantage of it. The matter was an important one, and would require careful consideration.