PUBLIC SAFETY REGULATIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 16 May 1941, Page 6

PUBLIC SAFETY REGULATIONS

SENTENCES ON CHRISTIAN PACIFISTS CASE FOR COURT OF APPEAL [United Press Association) Wellington, This Day. A request by the Solicitor-General that his Honour should state a case for the Court of Appeal in regard to sentencing five members of the Christian Pacifist Society, each of whom had been found guilty during the present criminal sessions of a breach of the public safety regulations, was conveyed to the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court to-day by the Crown Prosecutor. Mr Weston, K.C. The question was whether the prisoners who were sen- ' tenced to three months’ imprisonment j last month in the Magistrate’s Court for wilfully obstructing the police, could or should receive additional sentences for other breaches of the regulations in respect to the same prohibited meetings. Sir Michael Myers, Chief Justice, who had previously directed Mr Weston to have the question argued before him, agreed that in the public interest the point should be determined by a Court consisting of more than one judge. He said he would refuse to add to the sentences unless satisfied it would be in accordance both with the letter and the spirit of the law. The application was a perfectly proper one, ht said, and ht would draft a case fox the Court of Appeal.