£200 FINE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 5 July 1943, Page 2

£2OO FINE

ILLEGAL SALE OF RATIONED GOODS TRADING AT FARMHOUSE Auckland, This Day. A fine of £ 100 on each of two charges was imposed at Paeroa to-day by the Magistrate, Mr Freeman, on Henry Robertson Bush, farmer and former clerk of the court, who had admitted three charges of illegal trading within the meaning of the Rationing Emergency Regulations. The case was heard at Paeroa on 10th June when the Magistrate recorded convictions and reserved the question of penalty. The Magistrate said to-day that Bush w’as charged on three informations with selling rationed goods, mainly sheets, pillow slips, etc., without coupons. The facts given by the police were that defendant had been carrying on the sale of rationed and other goods from a remote country farmhouse on the Hauraki Plains. 'The farm was owned by defendant and conducted by sharemilkers named Madgwick. Mrs Madgwick conducted the sales at the house which was described as little more than a shack, and defendant took full lesponsibility for the transactions. Mrs Madgwick received no benefit from the operations. Two policewomen made purchases without coupons being tendered or asked for, and Detective Sergeant Murray also made a purchase without a coupon. The police later searched the premises and seized material valued at £2OO, consisting of many rolls of cloth. Deefndant refused to disclose the origin of the goods. After referring to the reason for the introduction of rationing, the Magistrate said the failure of vendors to collect coupons was a most serious matter, calling for a severe penalty. Quite obviously defendant did not desire to involve others. “It seems to me the police have by pure chance stumbled across a link in a very undesirable chain of black marketing,” said the Magistrate. It was a case of defendant deliberately setting out to flout the law and exploiting conditions arising out of the war. It seemed very desirable in wav time that the regulations should be tightened up to provide for the confiscation of goods where persons were found in possession of rationed goods and could give no satisfactory explanation of how they came by them. This would go a long way toward stopping black marketing. “The maximum penalties are seldom if ever inflicted except in extreme cases. I think these are extreme cases. The fine will be £IOO on each of two informations with costs, and on the third information the defendant is ordered to pay costs only,” concluded the Magistrate.—P.A.