SIX MEN CHARGED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17958, 9 December 1932, Page 9

SIX MEN CHARGED

SEQUEL TO PROCESSION POLICE WARNINGS IGNORED (Tor Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Charges were proceeded with to-day against thq six men arrested in connection with the attempted march on Parliament last Saturday. All pleaded not guilty to all tiie counts against them. Air. Hurley, who appeared for four ot the accused, intimated that he would submit legal argument at the conclusion of the cases to show that fhero had been no actual procession, and that the defendants, therefore, could not- bo charged with taking part in an unauthorised procession. Detective-Sergeant Tricklebank said that on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the police went round the relief works and warned the men that a demonstration would not be allowed. Notwithstanding this, a crowd assembled iu Cambridge terrace. It was broken up by the police, but some of the men persisted in marching (through the streets.

The accused were John Lighlfoot, 55, a laborer, charged with being a rogue and vagabond, in that lie was found armed wiJjh uni offensive weapon, a baton, with felonious intent; Roy Evans, 27, a laborer, charged with wilfully obstructing Detective-Sergeant Tricklebank in the execution of his duty and inciting John James Porter to resist De-tective-Sergeant Tricklebank in the execution of bis duty; John James Porter, 27, a seaman, William Herman Gladwin, 26, a seaman, Charles Thomas Holden, 56, a seaman, and William Benjamin Arthur Wilkinson, 36, a laborer; each charged with behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place, and taking part iu an unauthorised procession. The police evidence against Holden was that he was one of the leaders and carried an effigy, a skeleton, on which was inscribed: “Unemployed . Queen. Misery Week.” David Stanley Campbell, secretary of the Wellington Relief Workers’ Union, outlined the circumstances that led up to the demonstration, and the steps taken to ensure that it was orderly. He admitted that he had been warned by Detective Bayliss that the procession would not be permitted.