INJUSTICE ALLEGED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 119, 13 February 1935, Page 14

INJUSTICE ALLEGED

No Facility For Evidence on Commission EXPENSE TO MOTORISTS Strong protests against the lack of provision for evidence to be taken on commission for alleged breaches of the Motor Vehicles Act or local by-laws were made by a solicitor, Mr. G. J. Bayley, of Hawera, in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday when a resident of Hawera was charged, with failing to give a signal of his intention to pull out from a kerb. “There have been several cases before various courts recently showing the injustice done to motorists through the lack of provision for evidence to be taken on commission,” said Mr. Bayley. “Every lawyer can name instances where motorists have entered pleas of guilty to charges of breaches of the by-laws or Motor Vehicles Act or regulations rather than face the expense of attending in person and taking witnesses to a foreign court to defend the charges. “This is a case in point. My client, who is a resident of Hawera, is alleged to have committed a breach of the regulations in Wellington on January 3. If he were to appear in person he would be absent from business for three days, in addition to the expense of return railway fares for himself and his wife and for two nights’ stay away from home. Even if he were successful it would cost him £B/14/6, without any allowance for the three days he would be absent from his business. “In civil action? and under the Destitute Persons Act evidence can be taken on commission,” went on Mr. Bayley, “but there is no such machinery for charges under the Motor Vehicles Act or for breaches of by-laws. If the law were amended, my client could have had his evidence taken in Hawera at trivial expense. As it is, he is forced to enter a plea of guilty rather than incur the expense and inconvenience of travelling to Wellington to defend the case. “It is a basic principle of British justice that a man is innocent until he is proved guilty, and yet the law makes a motorist travel to a foreign court at his own expense, and, if he is not able to do that, he must plead guilty, even if he considers he is innocent.” “If counsel wishes to have the law altered there is a proper constitutional way of doing it,” said the magistrate, Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., who imposed a fine of 10/-. “You cannot use me for that purpose.”