IMPRISONED BOOKMAKERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11127, 16 November 1907, Page 3

IMPRISONED BOOKMAKERS.

ACTION OF SYMPATHISERS

(Per Press Association.! , CHRISTCHURCH, last night. The following petition bearing on the recent sentences imposed^ on bookmakers for trespassing on the Riccarton racecourse during the C.J.G. Metropolitan meeting is now 'being circulated and is being largely signed: "To the Hon. the Speaker and members of .the House of Representatives m Parliament assembld. The petition of the undersigned men and women of Canterbury humbly shows that on the 13th day of November, 1907, at the Police Court, Christchurch, Mr Day, S.M., sentenced Messrs Lovelock,- Bates, Butler, Campbell, Coburn, Courtney, Isaacs, Norman, Luby, Ryan, Shaccel, Tuckey, and Yarcoe to two months' imprisonment, and Messrs Noel, Duval, Jones, Robinson, and Saunders to one month's imprisonment, on a cliarge of wilful trespass on the Christchurch public racecourse reserve; that the. so-called wilful trespass was not the ordinary offence so termed, tout m reality a breach of a by-law framed by the trustees of the Christchurch racecourse reserve, prohibiting betting except by means of the totalisator ; the prosecutions were initiated and carried on by the Canterbury Jockey Club, with the sole object of protecting the revenue of the tote, and were not authorised or countenanced by the Police. Department ;" m addition to the above terms of imprisonment the Magistrate stated he was determined tlie costs of the Club should be paid by the accused persons, or m default an additional 28 days' imprisonment would be inflicted— an unprecedented action.' Your petitioners are of opinion that the above sentences; are unjustifiable, excessive, and not commensurate with the offence with which the men were charged. Your petitioners believe that the accused have been sent to prison not for the act of trespass but for being rivals dor public favor m competition with the tote. Your petitioners therefore .• hunrbly ask that your honorable House will take such steps as ,are ; necessary to commute tije above sentences, of imprisonment or grant such other relief as your honorable House may deem fit, and your petitioners as m duty bound will ever pray, etc."