ENEMY ALIENS
IGNORANCE NO EXCUSE
MUST OBEY REGULATIONS
ITALIAN FINED £10
A warning that enemy aliens, who, he said, enjoyed a certain amount of liberty and licence in New Zealand, must obey in their entirety the regulations laid down, was given in the Magistrate's Court today by Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., when he fined an Italian £ 10 for being in possession of a motorcar without a permit. The excuse given by the defendant, Crescenzo Aprea, of Island Bay, and verified by the police, was that at a friend's request he drove the friend's car into a garage for electrical repairs.
Senior-Detective P. J. Doyle, who prosecuted, said that by virtue .of section 23b of the Aliens Control Emergency Regulations, 1939 (Amendment 3) the defendant was refused a permit to have a motor-car under his control, but notwithstanding that refusal on August 12 he was seen to be driving a motor-car, which he parked outside his place of business in the city. He explained that the car was not his, but belonged to a friend, a British subject. The car had broken down and the friend had asked him to take the battery out of his own car, put it in the friend's car, and try it out. The defendant did that, drove it to work, and then took it to an electrician for repair. That-explanation was found to be truthful. The defendant, under the Public Safety Conservation Act, 1932, was liable to a fine of £100 or three months' imprisonment or both.
The friend of the defendant gave evidence and said that the responsibility was entirely his. Neither he nor the defendant thought the law was being broken. "On the face of it this seems to be a very trivial sort of offence," said the Magistrate. "You have come before the Court through ignorance and without any intention to do wrong. There is a tendency to take heed of trivial matters in the Aliens Control Emergency Regulations and to treat these breaches in much the same way as breaches of other enactments.
"I regard these regulations as dis-l cipline, and a plea of ignorance is of no avail at all. Alien enemies in this country are given a certain amount of liberty and licence, subject to the strict compliance with the regulations, and when there is a breach, even if, on the face of it, as in this case, the facts do not show anything really serious, the breach nevertheless must be visited with a heavy penalty, to let alien enemies know that they have to make themselves fully acquainted with the regulations and obey them in their entirety. In this case you knew you were prohibited from driving and that a permit had been refused, and yet you see fit to have this car in your possession."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19400830.2.96
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 53, 30 August 1940, Page 9
Word Count
469ENEMY ALIENS Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 53, 30 August 1940, Page 9
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