SEDITION BY A CLERGYMAN

Otago Witness, Issue 3349, 22 May 1918, Page 44

SEDITION BY A CLERGYMAN

REV. J. H. G. CPIAPPLE SENTENCED. CIIRISTCIIURCH, May 17. The hearing of the charges of having made seditious utterance at Grey mouth on March 26 and 29 against the Rev. J. H. G. Chappie (lecturer, of C'hristchurch) was taken to-day by Mr Bailey, S.M. The first charge set forth, that on March 29 the accused said: " You are under the heels of the War Lords. We have not population for our own country, yet we are losing after the annexation of Samoa. The patriotic- poison is in our schools. Children are taught to salute the flag and taught to sing the National Anthem. I tell my children whon they come home not to sing the National Anthem. I am hoping with a fervent hope that in this war there will be.no victor. To pray about a war is blasphemy. A woman goes down the Valley of■ Death to bring a child into the world. She nurses it, sends it to school, and sees it through the Sixth Standard. Then comes the call to arms, and it goes away to war. What for? To die for its country? No! To die for the profiteer."

Another charge stated that he said: "Russia wanted war, Britain wanted war, the upper class in New Zealand wanted war. Never has there been such a wonderful fivedays" (meaning the days of the Russian revolution). "The old Russia has gone and the new Russia has come in. I hope before I die to see a similar movement in New Zealand. I hope the day will come in New Zealand when these war loans will be repudiated. I hope not a peimy of the war loan will be repaid. You do not authorise them."

Evidence as to accused having uttered the words was given by Senior Sergeant Simpson and Detective-sergeant Ward. Mr Twineham, for the defence, submitted that the informations should be dismissed. If the words had been used in the way the witnesses had reported them probably they could be held to bo seditious, but it had been clearly established that they had been divorced from the context and were mere extracts from an address which took 90 minutes to deliver. The words had not been used in the way set out in the information, and he submitted that they gave an entirely erroneous description of the speech. His Worship, in convicting accused, said ho considered that he was a dangerous man, especially at this time in the country's history. He would be sentenced to 11 months' imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to bo concurrent. There were low cries of " Shame," and the court was declared adjourned. _ As the public was filing out, a woman raised her voice in passionate protest against the sentence. TIMARU LABOUR PROTEST. TIMARU. May 17. The Timaru Branch of the New Zealand Labour Party to-night passed a resolution protesting against the "savage sentence" imposed on Chappie, and expressing the opinion that, "even if guilty of a crime (which violates no moral code), in view of his advanced years, a fine could have adequately vindicated the authority of the law." Chappie was formerly Unitarian minister at Timaru.