IMPRISONED AND RELEASED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9811, 12 June 1914, Page 5

IMPRISONED AND RELEASED.

TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE IN TROUBLE. (Pm Pbibh Association.* AUCKLAND, June 10. When William Richardson, a well-known temperance, advocate, wr.s recently before tho Court on a charge of breaking the I y-laws by causing an assemblage to gather, which was large enough to obstruct the footpath, he protested that the chargo amounted to persecution, and that, as tho right of freo speech was involved, ho would serve a term of imprisonment rather than pay the fine imposed. Yesterday tho time had expired for tho payment, of the fine, and Mr Richardson was arrested on the issue of a distress warrant, and was taken to Mount Eden Gaol, to serve an alternative of seven days' imprisonment. Mr Richardson was, however, unexpectedly released to-day as the result of his friends subscribing the amount of his fine, and making the necessary payment. Speaking to a "Star" representative this morning, he said that he would have preferred to have spent the full time in gaol rather than that the penalty should have been paid.