A CHARGE DISMISSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22807, 17 February 1936, Page 7

A CHARGE DISMISSED

IRISH SWEEP AGENT LAWFUL MEANS OF SUPPORT (Per United Press Association) GREYMOUTH, February 15. At the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon, before Mr H. Morgan, S.M., Walter Samuel Nickolls, aged 45, a barman, was charged that on February 12 at Greymouth he was deemed to be an idle and disorderly person within the meaning of the Police Offences Act, 1927, in that he bad insufficient lawful means of support. He pleaded not guilty. Detective Sergeant Knight said the accused arrived at Greymouth on February 4 and on successive days until his arrest canvassed the town, purporting to be an accredited agent for the Irish Free State sweepstake, which' is illegal in New Zealand. The accused had had typed locally a sheet headed: “ Official Irish / Sweepstake agent, Titnarn, Palmerston North, Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Sweep closes April 19, 1936; tickets, 10s; exchange, Is; receive tickets about April 10, results May 1(5. Fifty-nine tickets for Greymouth only.” Below this heading were 59 numbered spaces, and below the spaces was a notice: “ Onr official agent will call on you every three months to see that you get your tickets an.l results. Official headquarters, Auckland.” He also had similar sheets with spaces for Tirrtaru filled in. He had uplifted Irish sweep tickets from a number of persons to whom tickets had been sent from Ireland. In the presence of Inspector Cameron and witness the accused said he had been employed for 12 mouths at £6 a week by two men who came from Ireland and established themselves in Auckland as an agency for the Irish sweepstake. He said he had no other employment and no other means. The sum of £5 12s OJd was found in bin possession, but no trace of the rest of the money collected in Greymouth. In his belongings was found a Christchurch Post Office bank book witli a credit of 1s from November 19, 1933. The defendant gave evidence that he had £l3 or £l4 when he arrived in Greymouth, but only some £6 were his own. That represented the balance of wages received. He had been told to come to Greymouth to investigate complaints that tickets sold there had not been sent forward. He collected some money in Greymouth for tickets, and sent £l3 away to Auckland on Monday by ordiu ary post, with chits on which were the names and addresses. The £5 12s o*d found in his possession was part of his wages.

To the magistrate: I cannot give the names of my employers in Auckland. Those are ray instructions from them. The magistrate said there was no evidence to rebut the accused’s statement that the money found in his possession was part of his wages, and there was equally no evidence to show that he had obtained the money dishonestly. That the Irish sweepstake was unlawful in New Zealand was not the question. The case was similar to one quoted by the defence, and as the accused had money, which was a lawful means of support, he would be acquitted.