“ Smithy ” Falls Foul Of Our Old Laws

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7066, 27 January 1933, Page 3

“ Smithy ” Falls Foul Of Our Old Laws

SOUTHERN CROSS PLYERS HAVE NAMES TAKEN BY POLICE

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith has fallen foul of our law on flying for hire. Police Department officers at New Plymouth took the names of some of the Southern Cross crew because the machine was being flown for hire or reward on a Sunday. This law is to be the subject of a test case shortly'. It will probably bo heard before the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers). New Zealand law prevents one from working at one’s trade on a Sunday within the public view. There are certain exceptions, including carriages which ply fob ’’hire. The whole ■ depends on whether an airplane doing joy-riding is a "carriage." • The Police Department has held that, it is not, and has launched proceedings many times. Some convictions have been secured and some charges have been thrown out. Recently, in Auckland, the secretary to the Auckland Aero Ciub (Mr. L. W. Swan) and the pilot-instructor (Mr. D. M. Allen) were charged with carrying on their trade on a Sunday by carrying passengers for hire in a vehicle that was not a carriage. Mr. F. K, Hunt, S.M., dismissed the charge as ridiculous. It was absurd to suggest, he said, that a man could take a taxi or a bus and drive over the Waterfront Toad, but could not take an aeroplane and fly over the Waterfront road. Action was taken against Mr. G. Bolt, assistant pilot-instructor to the Wellington Aero Club, for flying in Nflpicr on a Sunday, and this charge was also dismissed. The Police Department and the New Zealand Aero Club are now to be the parties in a tC3t case, which will seek to decide whether this old law r is to apply to 'planes or not. Mr. S. E. Nielson, the secretary to the New Zealand Aero Club, has an assurance from the Minister of Justice and Defence (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) that no further actions will be launched until this case is decided. It is presumed, therefore, that the taking of the names of the Sonthern Cross crew in New Plymouth was purely' a formality and that little more is likely to be heard of it.