POST OFFICE INQUIRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16621, 18 August 1917, Page 9

POST OFFICE INQUIRY.

HEARING OF EVIDENCE.

CASE FOR COMPLAINANTS.

QUESTION OF CENSORSHIP,

REV. 11. ELLIOTT EXAMINED.

TnE t • k; nc of evidence in connection with the inquiry into the allegations made by th,. iuv. Hi ward Elliott against postal officials in Am land was commenced yesterday in the Chamber of Commerce before the commissioner. Mr. H. W. Bishop, S.M. Mr. Alexander Gray, K.C., appeared' on behalf of the Postal Department, and Mr. 11 H. Ostler represented Mr. Elliott Mr. W. R. Morns. 1.5.0., Secretary to the Postal Department, and Mr. J. C. Williamson, Chief Postmaster, Auckland were present. ' Mr. '.-tier, in his opening address, said the present trouble m New Zealand comncj".d as the result of what he described -•' v,v '"''- v :u V-*! and improper attempt to i 'event American newspapers dealing v.-uii a hugo sectarian controversy m tho I r.:!ed states being circulated" in. tho Dominion. A number of Protestant " def.iuv" papers had been established to oe:end Prctesiant principles. Great endeavours had been made to suppress one " these papers, The Menace, and other eimii.ir publications. I„ peace time, convii:j<o Mr Ostler, no one had objected of i h/'u * U v d to 1 i'culate copies ot Iho Menace in New Zealand. 4„i af.u the " ar started, however, the publication m .New Zealand was prohibited, but u.toi exvupiauus were made the prohibition was removed. In Eeoruary, 7 fa a 1" ot Auek.iuid, Mr. H. H. sent a subscription of £2 to the' publishers "f Iho Menace, accompanied by a demand tor some literature, out his letter was not "Pr'dXt/" 5 M tUrKed ,to him marked Inhibited. Mr. Seabrook wrote to four postmasters in New Zealand, and to ce ".^ rs 111 »he lour chief towns asking it lhe Menace was prohibited' from coming into New Zealand, and was iniorined m the negative. He also communicated with the Acting-Postmaster- ' General, who admitted that a breach had been committed, and promised "that it i would not occur again. It was also stated ' that the postal official who had been euiitv • ot the breach was not a Roman Catholic." Seizure of Pamphlets. Dealing with the facta connected with ■ the specific charges made to the Prime' Minister. Mr. Ostler said that post office box 912 was rented early in 1916 bv the 1 Loyal Orange Lodge, and was used "by a ' Committee of \ igilance, consisting of men who had become alarmed at what they' considered the dangerous political activity of the Church of Rome in J* eiv Zealand. The committee pub- : lis bed a pamphlet entitled '"The Hideous Guilt of Rome in the European Carriage." The pamphlet was not related to military matters, and contained no statement infringing the right of free speech, which, althougn restricted by the War Regulations, still existed in New Zealand. As soon as the distribution of the pamphlet commenced the Auckland police raided the office of the publisher and sejzed the pamphlets. The question was: ho instructed the police to take the steps they did ? There was nothing in the NV ar Regulations authorising the police to seize documents. Pressure was brought to bear on the Government to prosecut° the authors of the pamphlet, and the branches of the Catholic Federation in New Zealand passed resolutions with that object. The Hon. A. L. Herdman absolutely relused to prosecute, and he told the authors that they had a perfect right i to publish the pamphlet, and had not in- ! fringed the War Regulations* Orders for the pamphlet began to come in, addressed to Box 912, but from the time the Attorney-General refused to prosecute a T» as> ce " s ° rshl P was established over ♦ iw' mo correspondence addressed rrn? X , Was also detained. When the Vigilance Committee found! that its letters were being intercepted, it decided to make a test. The committee! wrote four letters addressed to itself ' They were posted by the Rev. Howard Elliott on April 16, 1917. One was delivered. and the other three weTe held up, either by the post office or the censor. The letters dealt with the Roman Catholic Church, and not with war matters. In March, 1917, a written order was issued at the chief post office, stating that letters addressed to the Committee of Vigilance were to be submitted to tho military censor. In July, 1917, the association advertised that a public meeting was to be held in Auckland on Julv 11, and on July 6 an order was put in tno instruction book at the chief post office giving instructions to hold back all correspondence addressed to Box 912. 11 Censorship Not Consistent." They wanted to know by whose authority the order was given in the post office. If the answer was the military censor, the agitation would not cease until a proper answer is received, either from the present tribunal or from another. Tho censorship over the box was not consistent. On Sunday evening last, under his directions, four more letters were prepared exactly similar in tone and subject to the previous four which were posted. All came through the post without delay. Referring to the second charge, Mr. j Ostler said that over 40 letters were posted on the night of Friday, July 6, to ensure that they would be delivered before the following Sunday. The postmark showed that they reached the chief post office on Saturday morning, and they should have been delivered on the same day. They were properly stamped and addressed, but only one letter was delivered on the Saturday, two were not delivered at all, and the remainder were delivered on the, following Monday or Tuesday. Some of the letters had apparently been opened and tampered with, because the flaps of certain envelopes were fixed by a piece of stamp paper. None of the letters bore the superscription, Passed by the Military Censor." Mr. Gray admitted that the letters •were handed to the censor according to instructions. Dealing with the first charge regarding the posting of 2500 letters, Mr. Ostler said that great care had been taken before posting to see that the contents were properly in the envelopes. If any of the envelope' were empty they should have been marked by the sorters at the post office, who were required to do this in cafes of the kind. Two of the letters were never deliverd, and nine envelopes had been delivered empty. Applications for tickets for admittance to the Wednesday meeting were never received. " Illegal Censorship." "If the first charge stood by itself," said Mr. Ostler, "it could be explained by carelessness or laxity on the part of someone in the post office. In conjunction with the charges, however, my clients are justified in thinking that something more than mere negligence has occurred. The number of Roman Catholics in New

Zealand is 14 per cent., or one-seventh, of the population. Bishop Brodie, of Christchurch. recently stated that there were 150,000 Roman Catholics in New Zealand.

I? the fit".ires are correct they are about one-eighth of the population." I understand that the proportion of Roman Catholics employed at the Auckland post office is more than double that, and is 23 to 30 per cent."

'W'hat my clients are especially bitter about," continued counsel, "is that day by tiny they see matters going through the Roman Catholic press of New Zealand that are disloyal and seditious, and no attempt is made to prosecute. The Catholic Federation is the political body in New Zealand in defence of Roman

'Catholicism, vet/ no attempt is made to censure its correspondence."

Mr. Ostler characterised as absurd the statement that the chief censor was an Imperial officer and was under the control of the Imperial War Office^

Mr. Gray contended la *' the references of th« appomtment, authority or power 1 %%%» " 0t >"«•". the scope of °|« SIS rc »<* "° to. f"-™.?!™" 1 "" 11 '.' The imperial Went of S,» Zealand "'m") th ®, Governthere reserving , S n ,l; hat . a " tho "ty is ment the \i i 1 / • ' le I -* le rial GovernOffice in \,f,v 7 int -Pi'fere with tho Post the Post and 'lVi i . y sect 'on 2of 1910 power to telegraph Amendment Act, to the New 7CT i telegrams is reserved outbreak of S?i parliament. On the was empowered ♦ Minister for Defence pure oversight ih aa p Poi n t censors. By a «♦ tk V ght there is in New Zealand j censor letf 50 " 4 n" 1 ® "° lo S al authority to still prevail I **' q!^ n fL' tU D ona ' ove rnment ! still in force an T, thc Post offi Act is in view of t) openin of letters, Tost and T l i- provisions of the hit el v " Wa7tf raP n Act - „is-an aW an act of Iki Jt ma - v be justified as interests of ,"i i? necessity, and in the the censor the Empire, a "d so long as ere?" 80 / t ? erfp ™s'his' duty "> the in allv' one • S ! at ?: fair! - v and impartibut "no IS , not disposed to complain, is noting ill n° f strict ,aw t,le censor censor Ts Lrn y J" °P enin ß letters. The New 7a',i ' i ""der the control of the Zealand Government. It is a serithe matter for a i dictator to be put in he n post office. subject to no control, to ™ ny 7*°" ? letters, and no one \ n , Ve,! I' 1 ask ,ll « > reason whv." Ml - Ostler (hen call- d evidence. ' Evidence by Clergymen. j I'll regard to the letters which were -tilt out to enable ministers to make an I announcement on Sunday, J„lv 8. to vhe.r congregations, evidence was given mini -tor f% l ' " Garla Methodist minister, of Remuera, 11. Bailev, Baptist. (■ley Lynn, A . A. Murray. I'rwbvteria.,; ! >njaid Mreet, to the effect that the TnesH addressed to them arrived ou Tuesday. July 10. The R o v. F -V tl l 0n R;\ 0 "V Pr °t 0 ' M liin ' Grey Lynn, and terim T t • J- Macdonald. I'resbvtu an, akapuna. stated that the letters addressed to them never reached' the Rid" a t Mr L - Fi '"- of Dominion [t and _ J. Lowe. Devonport, J. H Eden a B s T';'; H * t! - vnlons - Mount respect tj" M ' Mount Eden, testified in u- , , t, l 1 " 1101 of the meeting on Wednesday, July U, that the envefopes emptv 8 r an R de '; ve !' ed to were o' ■ , caretaker of n m 1 au r^ e . v s premises, Rave a similar testimony in "respect to an envelope addressed to a Mr. Shackelford. M-idl Wo ° dr . ufte > of Mount Eden, gave ' 'dence that 111 answer to an advertisemen. he applied for two tickets of ad--80x'912 h h lett " bei "? - addressed to TTinm»" " e . n , ever received the tickets. \(! i cj Smith carpenter, Sunnvside, Mount Eden, said he had nn emptv envelope delivered to him on Julv 3. It contained the words : " Return to "Box 912 it unclaimed within seven day's." Miss sid D O, S ?\>, daUSht6r ° this witness. Post nffl-I/i ° I ? P t - V enve] ope to th® \n offis ? a ? d a -: k f d for an explanation. An official advised her to return the envestafinw th°,t 12 ' P °, t ° fficP ' with a note, stating that the envelope was emptv The empty envelope with the note " was posted to Box 91- on Thursday night, July 5. Street siirf a », am^ fc Sainton, Norman Mreet, said she received an envelope with nothing in ,t. In the afternoon her daughter asked T- the postman whv it was empty He replied :» I know what it b it is about an Orange meeting. I hava empty.''' 11111 ° n my ° Und hich were Posting of the Letters. Henpr Sydney Bilby. secretary of the I Protestant Political Association, of Balmoral Read, said that on July 6 he posted a number of letters to Protestant clergv- j men at the Dominion Road post office at 11..d0 p.m. None of them had pieces of ! stamp paper stuck on the flap ; they were ! sealed in the ordinary way. In regard to ! the charge relating to the delivery of i empty envelopes, witness and a Mr. 'kev- I worth posted about 2500 letters, some on July 2 and some on July 4. All the i envelopes contained their" proper con- j tents, the postage stamps being affixed : last. He could tell by the thickness of ; the contents that empty envelopes were not being stamped, and' there were other means of checkTo Mr. Gray: He was not suprised to ! know that some letters were returned ' marked " gone away," " not known," " not found," etc. Witness further said he met a postman in Karangahape Road, who said he bad delivered some empty envelopes. This was after Mr. Elliott had made the charges at the meeting. He had never received the letter containing the empty envelope which Miss Livinia Smith had posted to Box 912. He had posted a letter to each name on the list, produced. He did not receive a letter from Mrs. Mary Irvine, Otahuhu, asking for tickets. To Mr. Gray : A fortnight before the meeting he had exclusive use of the kevs of Box 912. Eric Lewis Key worth, grocer's assistant. of Balmoral Road, corroborated the evidence of the former witness. He was confident that all the 2500 envelopes contained cards and circulars, as special precautions were taken. Mr. Howard Elliott's Statement. The Rev. Howard Leslie Elliott, Baptist minister, Mount Eden, said he was one of the Committee of Vigilance. He was responsible for the issue of the pamphlet previously referred to. He had circulated 25,000. The pamphlet was a reprint from The Churchman, an English paper, edited by John Kensit. The pamphlet had been reprinted in Canadian and Australian papers. Witness gave evidence regarding his interview with the Hon. A. L. Herdman, regarding its circulation, as outlined by counsel. Witness detailed posting, at the pillar-box at the corner of Dominion Road and View Road, four trial letters to test the scope and object of the censorship. Only one letter giving notice of a meeting was delivered. The other three letters, asking for the truth concerning certain rumours in regard to the Roman Catholic Church, were not received. The Vigilance Committee protested to the Postmaster-General about the* non-delivery of the letters. The Postmas-ter-General replied that the censorship was not under his jurisdiction, and asked him to apply to the Minister for Defence. A letter was written to the Minister, who replied that citizens must of necessity suffer some inconvenience at such times as the present. Witness produced several letters from, the South Island complaining that no acknowledgment had been received of the receipt of letters, some containing stamps or other enclosures for the payment of literature asked for. Witness also produced copies of four letters posted on August 11 to the Vigilance Committee, Box 912. These letters were received. The contents were similar to the contents of the letters which had not been delivered. Mr. Ostler : I wish to draw attention to the fact that the censor has passed these letters, but has stopped other similar letters. Witness, continuing, said he was present when the 2500 circulars were being wrapped and prepared for the post. He i instructed every member of the committee' to see that all letters were properly closed and stamped. He remembered filling the envelope addressed to Mr. H. Symons. The inquiry was adjourned "until this morning.