POLICE RAID

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 127, 31 May 1935, Page 5

POLICE RAID

ARTICLE BY EDITOR

CRIMINAL LIBEL ALLEGED

MINISTERS CALLED

! Two Ministers of the Crown, the Hon. C. E. Macmillan and the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, were called by the defence to give evidence in Ihe Magistrate's Court yesterday at the hearing of the four charges of criminal libel brought by the Commissioner of Police (Mr. W. G. Wohlmann) against Albert Edward Robinson, of Auckland, editor of "Farming First." Another feature of the proceedings after "The Post" went to press, was the evidence of the defendant.

The charges arise from an article, headed "One Law for the Administrators and Another for the People," relating to a police raid at Te Aroha, which appeared in "Farming First" of March 15 last. It was contended in substance that the article meant that because of the alleged presence of a Minister of the Crown, the Commissioner of Police had committed a breach of duty in not prosecuting more than two of the men whose names were taken by the police. The defence, while not admitting a written plea was necessary, pleaded justification should publication of the alleged libel be proved. The statement also set out that if publication be proved the words in the article "A Minister of the Crown was in the room" were not true, but contained no alleged libel against the Commissioner of Police. Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., presided. Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell, with him Mr. H. J. V. James, appeared for Mr. Wohlmann, and .Mr. A. C. A. Sexton, Auckland, and Mr. R. H. Boys, Wellington, for Robinson. TE AROHA "SWEEPS." The first witness of the defence was the Hon. Charles Edward Macmillan, Minister of Agriculture and member for Tauranga, in which electorate is the town of Te Aroha. He said he was at the Te Aroha race meeting in February last, and that on the night when the raid took place he was on the Limited express. He did not know of the holding of the Calcutta sweeps in connection with all the Te Aroha race meetings, but he did know that Calcutta sweeps had been held and he had attended two, about eight years ago. The first thing that was mentioned to him when he arrived in Te Aroha was the raid. Several people spoke of it, and he tried to communicate with the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, Minister of Justice, but he did not get hold of him that day. Later the same day he telephoned the Commissioner of Police and asked him for the facts, saying that people thought they had been singled out and were blaming the Government for it. Mr. Wohlmann completely misunderstood witness, because he replied that he had five similar prosecutions pending. Witness. knew that Calcutta ■ sweeps were illegal." The people of Te Aroha wanted to know when action would be taken. Mr. Wohlmann subsequently told him he thought witness's telephone conversation referred to bookmakers. Witness at' the time was more than satisfied that Mr. Wohlmann had not understood his question, as to why other prosecutions were not being made as the result of the Calcutta sweep raid. Mr. Wohlmann told witness he had decided .that the ends of justice would be met'by laying prosecutions against the promoter and his assistant, and he_ made that decision without any influence from the witness. Witness denied getting in touch with Mr. Cobbe after the raid. MAGISTRATE INTERRUPTS. "This is not the place to fill the newspapers with a whole lot of propaganda." said the Magistrate, interrupting Mr. Sexton's line of questioning of the witness at a later stage. Cross-examined by Mr. Treadwell, Mr. Macmillan said he had not been at Calcutta "sweeps "while "a Minister of the Crown. He did not attempt to exercise' the judgment of Mr. Wohlmann as to how he should act in reference to the Te Aroha raid. Stanley Wylie, a secretary of Te Puke, said that on April 12 he had been convicted for using premises at Te.Aroha as a common gaming-house. He had been .fined and also a man named Wilson. There had been four scrutineers at the drawing of the sweep and they were drawn from the audience. Witness knew a considerable number of the men present. Among them were horse owners, Government officials, bankers, accountants, etc. Practically every, calling was represented. It might be said that pretty well the whole town was present. He had seen the article in "Farming First." Some brie "was kind enough to send it to him. He knew of no one, as a result of that article, who had been filled with a desire to assault the police. Mr. Treadwell asked witness if he knew there were among those present in the hall relief workers and labourers. Witness said he did not know any relief workers were present. Various callings were represented without regard to whether the men were poor or wealthy. MINISTER OF JUSTICE IN BOX. John George Cobbe, Minister of Justice, said that the raid at Te Aroha had been brought under his notice in Wellington in the course of other business. The Commissioner had a list of the men whose names had been taken, but witness was not particularly interested in the names. He had had no conversation with Mr. Macmillan prior to the publication of the article. After publication, he had asked Mr. Macmillan jokingly if he had been in the raid. Mr. Wohlmann told him that the names of about 200 men had been taken. It seemed to witness that just about the whole district was represented. Asked why he thought the case had been specially brought under his notice, the Minister said that it was an unusual one. It was the first case of its kind since he had been Minister of Justice. The occupations of people, he said, had nothing to do with the administration of justice. It was some considerable time after the raid had been referred to him that Mr. Wohlmann told ■ him that he was taking action. MR. WOHLMANN'S DECISION. In answer to Mr. Treadwell Mr Cobbe said that Mr. Wohlmann had told him that the information he had was that a large number of people simply walked in and out of the hall and it was difficult to determine who were innocent and who were not. Mr Wohlmann said that he had come to the conclusion that the ends of justice would be served if the principals were prosecuted and that he did not think the police would be justified in bringing zoo people to the court. The Commissioner said that he was satisfied a large number of them were innocent Witness- said he did not interfere with the decision of the Commissioner. The Commissioner had made the decision himself.

Albert Edward Robinson, the defendant, produced, the manuscript of the article. He said that the article as it appeared was not the same in every

detail as when he had written it. The "they" in the paragraph complained of should have been "some" and "the decision of the police not to prosecute" was in inverted commas. He was linking it up with a Press report.

Mr. Sexton asked witness what he thought was the effect on the public mind of the non-prosecution of a number of people.

Mr. Robinson: The people all think it is "rigged." The people think the •ion-prosecution is an arrangement.

Witness went on to deal with the policy of the paper, which, he said, was a wide one. It was felt that the course being taken in New Zealand would lead to serious trouble in the long run. The paper wanted to see laws passed that would be kept by all.

I Mr. Sexton: What is the general tenor of the article complained of in regard to the keeping of the laws? Mr. Stilwell: Isn't that for me to decide, Mr. Sexton? Witness said that the comments by him were made on the strength of what had appeared in the "Auckland Star." STATE AND GAMBLING. Dealing with the various paragraphs in the article, witness said that the first was devoted to an expression of opinion that the State promoted the gambling spirit and then prosecuted men for trifling gambling offences. The use of the word "hence." he claimed, in the sentence in the article, "hence the decision of the Commissioner of Police not to prosecute, we have no doubt whatever," allowed of the interposition of quite a train of circumstances. If the word "therefore" had been used the position would be different. At first he took very little interest in tho Te Aroha raid, continued witness, but people began to talk /about it and he received extracts of reports relating to the raid. As a result of that he wrote the article.

Mr. Treadwell was about to crossexamine witness when the Court adjourned until today.