PULPIT PROTESTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 5

PULPIT PROTESTS

MEN FROM I'RISON INVITED by minister POLICE DENY ALLEGATIONS [FROM OVR OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY, Oct, 28 remarkable protest against the alleged persecution by police of men released from gaol was made by a Methodist clergyman, the Rev. Albert Morris, of Bandwick, Sydney. He permitted two such men to speak from the pulpit,of his church on a Sunday night. Both men had complained to Mr. Morris-of alleged persecution, and in their addresses made bitter attacks on the consorting law. The consorting law has been in operation in New South Wales for about seven years. It gives the police power to arrest any person who habitually consorts with convicted or reputed criminals. Police oflicers believe that the elfect of the law has been to drive .many criminals out of the State. One police officer said that the consorting law was a much-desired protection i:o the public, as it broke up criminal gangs and enabled the police to keep keener watch on known and reputed criminals. Contention by Speakers One of the men who spoke from Mr. Morris' pulpit said that it was only the second occasion in his life that ho had been in a Methodist Church; tho first was three months ago, when ho was taken out of solitary confinement by Mr. Morris and his wife to bo married. A condition of his release was that he should try to rehabilitate himself and become respectable again. He had tried hard, he said, but many times he had telephoned to Mr. Morris to tell him of persecution he had suffered from the consorting squad. If a prisoner released on probation was "booked" for consorting with another convicted criminal, he must go back to serve the remainder of his sentence. The other ex-criminal who spoke said: "I have repeatedly complained to Mr. Morris of the persecution to which I have been subjected by the police of New South. Wales. I complained to the heftds of the department ivithouteffect. ' :I "Crime of Talking" In his sermon, Mr. Morris said that he did not use his pulpit to attack anyone unless he was sure. They had their redress if he made any slip. Men who had been convicted were "booked" for habitual consorting if they spoke to another man who had been convicted. Their crime was just that they talked to each other. No question was raised, in Court of what they were talking about. Mr. Morris now faces trouble? with his Church. He allowed the two men to speak after he had been warned by the president of the Methodist Conference against permitting them to do so. Hundreds of persons, including many clergymen, he said, telephoned him the next day and congratulated him on his denunciation of the consorting law. The Minister of Justice,' Mr. Martin. denied many of the statements which one of the men made in the chnrch. A high police officer denied that convicted criminals were hounded or continually harassed after their discharge from gaol, so that they were prevented from getting honest employment., Th-i consorting squad, he said, frequently gave good advice to Buch men