POLLING-DAY MEGAPHONE
NOVEL CHARGE DISMISSED.
[FEB PBESB ASSOCIATION.]
WELLINGTON, May 31.
Charles Proctor and Frederick James Whelan pleaded not guilty to a charge that during the hours in which municipal polls were taking place, they made a public demonstration by means of megaphones installed in, a car, by which an announcement . to vote for Hislop as Mayor, was made. The charge was laid under the section of the Local Elections and Polls Act, which forbids demonstrations concerning the poll by living figures, effigies, paintings, placards, or other means. •
Counsel successfully pleaded that defendants had not made a public demonstration, because the car was moving all the time and crowds could not collect about it. He also submitted that a megaphone did not come within the section. Further, that the windows were covered over so that Proctor could not be seen and that Whelan, the driver, could not be joined. The Magistrate said that Whelan might be charged with aiding and abetting. It seemed clear that he could not. convict. The section would have to be amended if the Legislature meant demonstrations such as this. The charges would be dismissed.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GEST19350531.2.36
Bibliographic details
Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1935, Page 6
Word Count
189POLLING-DAY MEGAPHONE Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1935, Page 6
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Greymouth Evening Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in