COMMUNISTS’ BOOK

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1928, Page 7

COMMUNISTS’ BOOK

AUCKLAND MAN CONVICTED.

(Special to "Star.")

AUCKLAND, September 29.

Yesterday, Magistrate Hunt fined Sydney Wilson Scott £5, with costs, for having in his possession for sale or distribution 12 copies of the “Party Training Manual,” books which advocated violence and expressed seditious intention. When Scott was fined on another charge last Tuesday, the Magistrate deferred his decision in this case until he had perused the booklet. “I have read many parts of this book,” said Mr Hunt; in giving his decision, “and when I got to Page 9,’ I found speaking about the MacDonald Labour Government, references to the necessity of breaking up and destroying the capitalist State machinery of bureaucracy, Courts of Justice, and military and police apparatus. It is not a good thing for such books to be distributed all over the place, and it is a serious matter. It is only because we have not had many of these cases before the Court recently, that I am imposing such a light fine.” In ordering Scott to pay costs £2/2/-, the Magistrate said that it was worth £2/2/- to read the book.