ART UNION PROSECUTION

Patea Mail, Volume XLIX, 30 March 1927, Page 3

ART UNION PROSECUTION

G. ORAISBY FtNED, TIME FOR A HALT. A £lO fine was inflicted upon George ■Ormsby, secretary of the Castlecliff Bcacli linprovcincnt Society, at the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for a breach of the -regulations under which the permit for the Beach Improvement Art Union was issued. Among the ten conditions it was said that defendant was not to deliver hooks of tickets indiscriminately, but was to await applications. During the last month, however, defendant sent out tickets with a covering letter, and some of .the envelopes fell into the hands of the police. During', the police evidence it transpired that the butts of one book were found on the river bank. The seller of this apparently decamped with the money. Defendant raised the novel point that, if a person purchased a ticket in another art union it was a sufficient acknowledgement that the purchaser was willing to act as an agent. The circulars enclosed were only personal letters to agents. ' The magistrate (Mr. -T. S. Barton) held that the sentence, “I enclose n book* of tickets,” clearly indicated a breach of the permit conditions. The .time had arrived for a. halt in raffles, si 1 which were becoming an intolerable « fmi&ance in' the community. In the J case under review there was a distinct V floating of the Act, which made for bud citizenship.