“KELLY GANG”

Northern Advocate, 10 November 1934, Page 3

“KELLY GANG”

ISSUE OF PAMPHLET. TRUST INQUIRY. [Special to “Northern Advocate.”] AUCKLAND, This Day. As a sequel to the publication of a recent pamphlet which attacked the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates and a supposed body of business men described as the “Kelly Gang,” Maurice Vincent Bates, Auckland manager of the Investment Executive Trust of New Zealand, Ltd., was prosecuted, on summons, in the Police Court yesterday for two breaches of the Printers and Newspapers Act, 1908. Defendant was charged with dispersing a pamphlet entitled “McArthur Strikes Back at Coates and the Kelly Gang.” in which the place of abode of the printer was not published. as 'required iiy the Act, and, further, with publishing the pamphlet, which did not contain these essential particulars. Mr Hampson represented defendant, who pleaded guilty. Senior Detective Hall said that over 15,000 pamphlets had been printed. When interviewed, Mr Bates stated that he had the pamphlets printed on instructions received from Australia. The printer had recently been prosecuted on similar charges at Wellington, and fined. Mr Hampson pointed out that the offences were only of a technical nature. “Defendant relied on the good faith of the printer, but he was let down,” said counsel. “He had written to the printer to ask why his name and address had not been placed on the pamphlets, and received a reply from the printer, who said he thought he had complied with the law by printing his firm’s name on the pamphlets.” The Magistrate, Mr F. K. Hunt, suggested to Senior Detective Hall that a conviction on one charge would suffice, but the prosecuting detective replied that he had been instructed to press both charges. Mr Hunt said he appreciated defendant’s bona fides in the matter, and in fining Bates the minimum penalty, £5 on each charge, he suggested that Mr Hampson should apply to the Minister for a remission of the fine on one charge. “I don’t think he should be punished on two charges which both arise out of the one matter,” said Mr Hunt.