MORE DEFAULTERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24189, 3 February 1942, Page 4

MORE DEFAULTERS

SOME SENT TO CAMP

CASE OIF A, CHIROPRACTOR

WARNING BY MAGISTRATE

Six defaulters were brought before | Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., at a specail Court yesterday. A salesman, Edwin M. H. Nicholson, aged 26 (Mr. Buisson), admitted failing to enrol, but said he was under the impression that that was covered by his social security registration. When he was not called in any of the ballots he wrote to Wellington and was quite prepared to serve. A fine of £5 was imposed. For failing to report, two brothers, William E. Richardson and George A. Richardson, who said they were members of the Christian Assembly, were sent to a defaulters' camp. Gordon Leslie MacCarthy also was nent to a camp on a similar charge, while Leslie C. New was sentenced to five weeks' imprisonment for failing to enrol. Legality Questioned Doubt as to the legality of the arrest of his -client at the Auckland prison and his removal direct to a military camp after serving a gaol term, was expressed by Mr. Hail Skelton, who appeared for Lionel Duggan, chiropractor, charged with failing to receive battledress. Counsel said his client maintained that the arrest was illegal and therefore he could not legally be ordered to receive battledress. A 17-page statement made by accused was handed to the magistrate when the case was first called last week and a week's adjournment was then granted. Counsel said a good deal of the statement was irrelevant. His client had asked to be posted to the medical corps when called up, and when told he would not be, h e had refused to be examined. His view was that as a professional man he would be of most use in the medical corps. Accused's Ideas The magistrate said it was quite clear that accused was under such an obsession and had such dangerous ideas that it would not be right to deal with him without getting a medical report as to his mental capacity. It was a pity that a man with such a good record of service in the last war should get such an obsession. If allowed to go unchecked he could become dangerous, holding such ideas. In ordering accused to come up for sentence within 12 months if called on. the magistrate warned him that he had to refrain from doing anything that might turn out to be subversive. Counsel said he thought accused appreciated the position. To him it had become a collision between the medical profession and the chiropractic profession.