OBEYED AN IMPULSE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 174, 8 July 1932, Page 8

OBEYED AN IMPULSE

HOSTILITY TO “SPECIALS,” QUESTION OF PSYCHOLOGY. Wellington, July 7. “I can’t understand this hostility to special constables,” remarked Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court to-day during the hearing of an appeal by Mervyn George Berry against the sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment for having been found in possession of an offensive weapon. The case arose out of the May riots, Harry Clifton Berry, a brother of the appellant, a carrier, formerly of Auckland, said that when '' • brother picked up a stone he told him to put, it down and not be a fool. Counsel: Does your brother belong to the Communist. Party? Witness: I'll bet my shirt he doesn't He hates them like poison. The Crown Prosecutor: Were you hostile to the special constables 2 Witness: Yes. You W'cre booing at them? — Yes. And a detective told you to go home? - -Yes. And you said: “I can’t help it; it's horn in me: my father was a striker?” --Well, there’s no harm in that. His Honour: I don’t understand this hostility to special constables. What have they done that they should not do? Witness: I can’t understand it mvself. str. What’s wrong with the special con stables?—There’s nothing wrong with them. IF Honour: 1 can’t understand this hostility to the special constables. 1 would like to know what they have done. Couns for the appellant: No one seems to understand it, sir. Perhaps a psychologist could tell us.