CHARGES FAIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24757, 3 December 1943, Page 2

CHARGES FAIL

OUTHJT OF APIARY : department criticised . ( q_q_) HAMILTON, Thursday A case of great interest to honey producers, affecting the Honey Emergency Regulations, was decided by Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., in a reserved decision given in Hamilton today. Ernest William Sage, beekeeper, 0 f■ Obaupo (Mr. Watts), was charged at the instance of the Marketing Depart, ment (Mr. Gillies) on six informations of failing to furnish monthly returns of the quantity of honey produced from December, 1942, to May, 1943, of failing to furnish returns for the last three seasons, and on one information of failing to sell to the department 70 per cent of his monthly extraction of honey during the 1942-43 season. No Formal Requisition The magistrate remarked that none of the informations gave any dates or places for the offences charged. Another objection to all the informations was a substantial one on the merits. In each case the defendant was charged that, having been required by the Director of the Internal Marketing Division to do certain things, he failed to do them. There was no evidence that the director had made any requisitions in terms of Regulation 5. to the defendant, either personally or by public notice. The defendant had received a document "formally requiring" him to comply with instructions given earlier. It was signed, "Yours faithfully, I n . ternal Marketing Division," with some indecipherable initials added. However, there was nothing to show_ who had given instructions alid no evidence had been produced to show that they had actually been given. The charges of : failing to supply returns must therefore fail. No Obligation to Sell The regulations affected the liberty - of the subject by restricting the rights of apiarists to deal with their own property and conduct their own businesses as they thought best. They were a governmental or departmental interference with apiarists' means of livelihood, and charges laid under them must therefore be proved beyond reasonable doubt by proper evidence. Regarding the charge of failing to sell, the magistrate held that there was nothing in- Regulation 4 to say that the director might require the occupier of any apiary to sell to the department 70 per cent of his monthly extraction of honey, or indeed any honey. There was nothing to prevent an apiarist from keeping, consuming or destroying his honey, or possibly using it himself for manufacturing purposes. He was expressly permitted to sell it in 601b. lots at. the apiary unless the director by written notice to him prohibited or restricted such sales, and in the present case this had not been done. None of various circulars produced was sufficient to constitute t notice under Regulation 4. Informality and Errors The magistrate criticised the informality of the departmental officers' procedure in the matter and remarked that, to judge from mis-statements in the circulars, they did not appear to understand the regulations. Powers such as those delegated to divisional directors, he added, should be exercised strictly within the terms of the delegation. This had not been done, and the informations must be dismissed on this ground as well as on the other grounds mentioned. Costs were allowed the defendant in respect of five of the six informations regarding returns, the magistrate holding that the department's action in laving more than one charge savoured of bureaucratic persecution. LOCAL ANT) GENERAL War Paintings Since its opening on Tuesday afternoon the exhibition of war paintings by _ Captain Peter Mclntyre, official artist, has attracted 1450 visitors to the Art Gallery. The patriotic funds hare benefited to the extent of £37 by donations and catalogue sales. Air Cadet Campaign Continued public interest was shown * yesterday in the mobile instructional unit now in Auckland in connection with the Air Training Corps recruiting campaign. Already over 40 applications for enti-y into the corps have been received at the depots set up alongside the unit's trucks outside the Chief Post Office. The unit will remain in Auckland until Saturday and then leave for Hamilton. The target for the week's campaign is 250 new cadets. Grass Export Possibility discussing the great productivity of New Zealand's grasslands compared with other countries in an address to the Royal Empire Society yesterday, Mr. E. Earle Vaile said it was quite possible that New Zealand grass itself, dried and pressed, would be exported to Great Britain in competition with cattle cake. Some of the Dominion dairy farms yielded 3001b. of butterfat to the acre, whereas in other countries 1001b. of fat was considered a top performance: First Grapes and Peaches The first grapes of the season, a few pounds of the Black Hamburg variety, which were grown in an Otahuhu hothouse, made their appearance at a produce auction market vesterdav and realised 14s 9d per lb. wholesale. Levanquer peaches from Kumeu also were on sale for the first time this season and sold at 42s a crate of about 201b. Neither fruit was offered in Queen Street fruiterers' yesterday. About 60 cases of apricots from Thames were offered at the markets. Directed Workers workers who are directed into essential work- have strong feelings about the manpower office, and they appear to set themselves out to become a source of annoyance to the employers," said the. chairman of the Auckland Manpower (Industrial) Com•m'ttee, Mr. J. O.- Liddell, yesterday. "I heir idea is to make the employers ieel that they would be glad to be rid of them. That cannot be allowed to continue, and it will not assist any person seeking a release from an industry. • If those tactics were at all successful, it would be a very bad thing for the industries on which -the war effort depends." Late Sittings in Parliament A suggestion for some reform in I arliamentary procedure was made by Mr. W. P. Endean, former M.P. for Remuera, at a National Party gathering in Auckland vesterdav. When acknowledging a presentation to Mrs. Endean and himself, he said he hoped that when the National Party became the Government it would alter the present crude procedure in the House ot Representatives in regard to late sittings. "I do not know what is wrong with our democracy when it stands for that sort of folly of making men sit ■ through nights, in debates," he said, in urging a change that would obviate that practice. Huntly West State Houses Good progress is being made with the erection of 30 houses at Huntly West by the State Housing Department, as part of a scheme to provide over 100 new homes in that locality. The area being developed is on the western side of the Waikato River opposite the borough of Huntlv. Recently the Mayor of Huntly, Mr. G.. m 1 ' met res idents of Huntly V* est to ascertain their wishes with regard to their inclusion in the Huntly • borough. The chairman of the Raglnn County Council was also present. At conclusion of the meeting, it was decidedly 26 votes to 11 that the Huntly West residents did not desire t" 1 join the borough.