PICKETING RELIEF WORKERS

Otago Witness, Issue 4048, 13 October 1931, Page 74

PICKETING RELIEF WORKERS

EIGHT MEN BEFORE COURT EVIDENCE OF INTIMIDATION. CHRISTCHURCH, October 6. Singing the “ Red Flag ” as they were brought to the Magistrate’s Court in the police van to-day the eight members of the unemployed workers movement who were arrested for picketing relief workers in the Botanical Gardens on September 28 were before Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court on charges arising from the incident. Fines were imposed on five of the men, the charges against the other three being dismissed. The accused were: Herbert Edwin Barnsley, accountant, aged 51; Ernest Llewellyn Jones, labourer, 24; Alexander Braid Blance, 27; Percy Ede, a cook, 25; Leonard James Rosevear, painter,' .39; David Carroll Watson, labourer, 36; Ronald Hicks, labourer, 21; and James Mac Kay, seaman, 35. They were charged with intimidating, by unlawfully besetting persons at the place at which they were working, with a view to compelling them to abstain from working. Barnsley asked that the case be heard by another magistrate. Mr Mosley: Why? Barnsley: On the grounds that you have shown bias on previous occasions when cases concerning the movement have come before the court. Mr Mosley: The application is refused.

Ede, Jones and Rosevear pleaded not guilty and the others refused to plead, which was accepted by the magistrate as a plea of not guilty. Barnsley made a move to go out of the dock and a brief struggle occurred. Mr Mosley: What’s the matter? Barnsley: I am not going to stay and hear the ease. Mr Mosley: Oh, aren't you really. I think you are. The case then proceeded. It was stated that the Unemployed ■Workers' Movement objected to the rule of the Hospital Board that able-bodied men supplied with rations should do work for the Domains Board equivalent to the value of the rations. It was alleged that the accused had been active in trying to prevent men from doing this work. Barnsley was secretary of the movement. There were notices on trees in the park, such as: “Ration work declared black. Be men and stand off.” In evidence Jones said he was in the park solely as a spectator, not as a demonstrator. Ede and Rosevear also denied that they had taken any part in picketing. The magistrate said he was not satisfied that Jones and Ede were deliberately guilty of besetting, and the charges against them would be dismissed. Rosevear’s participation was slight, and the charge would be dismissed. The others were guilty of besetting and the only question was what punishment should be given. A voice: Deal it out. Sir Mosley said that the maximum fine was £2O, in default imprisonment up to three months. Barnsley and Blance would be each fined £lO, in default two months; Hicks £3, in default 21 days; Mac Kay £5, in default one. month; and Watson £5, in default one month.