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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 21

Some days ago George Gilbert, agent’ for the Nelson Retailers’ Protection Association, was prosecuted on a charge of circulating a printed letter warning a debtor of being posted if be did not pay bis creditors, and making a final demand for payment. The charge was that the paper bore no imprint. The defence was that it was purely a commercial paper, and not a paper within the meaning of the act; that it was not dispersed or distributed in the sense of' circulation; and that it was feasible for anyone to use either a typewriter printer’s type for saving time in letter-writing. His Worship reserved his judgment. At the Nelson Oourt yesterday the Magistrate held that the defence was irresistible, and the case was dismissed. The paper was held to be a business communication, partly written and partly printed. The Magistrate . said he was fully alive to the fact that in the hands of unscrupulous persons a paper of the nature under review would be used to work harm, but that_ matter was not for him but for Parliament to consider. A petition has been prepared, and will be presented to the Governor-in-Council, asking for the clemency of the Grown for Mads Brodersen, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for inoest at the last sitting of the Supreme Court. This action has been taken under the provisions of the Criminal Code of 1893, and is the last appeal which can be made by a prisoner who has been convicted by a jury. The act, provides that if there be reasonable doubt the Governor-in-Council may direct a new trial at such time and Court as he thin hr fit. The whole of the evidence given at the trial'as taken from the Judge’s notes, will be forwarded with the petition. Messrs Levi and Wilford aye acting for petitioner.