BREACH OF DISCIPLINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24834, 6 February 1942, Page 6

BREACH OF DISCIPLINE

CONSTABLE JOINS ARMY SYMPATHETIC MAGISTRATE (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Feb. 5. '• I am quite sure that counsel’s eloquent appeal will find an echo in the hearts of a great many of the public and I daresay in the heart of the prosecutor himself,” said Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M.. in the Stratford Court this morning when summing up in a charge against Constable James Hamilton Rodgers, of resigning from the police force without the commissioner’s consent. Inspector Scott, of New Plymouth, prosecuted. ' ' It was the third case in New Zealand, Mr Woodward added, in fixing the fine at £5, and costs (10s). There was no moral delinquency in what Rogers did, he said. “I admire and respect Rodgers for what he has done and I am sorry that a conviction has to be recorded.”

Counsel, Mr N. H. Moss, associated himself with the courageous act of the constable. He introduced a novel argument by comparing Rodgers with a conscientious objector and pointing out that the law had gone out of its way to be fair to the latter. He argued, therefore, that the former should be equally fairly treated. Inspector Scott detailed the events of the resignation, which was not accepted by the Commissioner. Rodgers walked out on January 4, and when he had been offered a chance to reconsider his decision, he replied that he felt it was better to join the forces. The inspector said that Rodgers’s record was satisfactory. He referred j.to the Kilgour case in Auckland, and asked for the full penalty as discipline had been disobeyed. After the penalty had been inflicted two local business men handed Rodgers’s counsel cheques for £1 each towards the payment of the fine.