“CURFEW” CONDITIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21784, 28 July 1934, Page 17

“CURFEW” CONDITIONS

UNUSUAL SENTENCES GAOL TERM FOR ILLEGAL STREET MEETING [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, July 28. The unusual course of imposing the curfew ou Communists was taken by the magistrate, Mr Wilson, at the conclusion of the hearing of charges against four men arising from an alleged street meeting in Newton. The men were Lewis Williams (thirty), Alexander Drennan (thirty-four), Sidney William Scott (thirty-four), and Henry Morniugton Smith (thirty). The Magistrate said Drennan and Scott were more seriously involved than the others. These two had made up their minds to defy authority, and they had been guilty of conduct likely to incite and inflame the feeling of the people against the police. “ I am going to take steps to ensure that none of these four takes part in such gatherings for some time,” said the Magistrate. He sentenced Williams and Scott to seven days in gaol for inciting, and admitted them to probation for one year for obstructing the police. He made a special condition of the probation that for the first three months after their release they must not be out at night from their homes after 7 o’clock. He sentenced Drennan and Smith to_ three months in gaol for inciting, this sentence to be followed by two years’ probation, with the curfew provision for the first six months after release.

Sentences on the charge of holding an illegal meeting were postponed.