DEMOCRAT FUNDS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19141, 9 October 1936, Page 13

DEMOCRAT FUNDS

HOPES OF ORGANISERS SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT REJECTION Or' CLAIM (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. In giving his judgment in favour of the defendants on the claim by Harry diaries Baulf to recover from several well-known personalities of what was the Democrat Party the sum of £195 as the. balance of salary and expenses allegedly owing for work as (he Auckland organiser of the party, Mr. Wyvem Wilson, S.M., said the plaintiff was first told of the new party by the defendant A. E. Davy. They had worked together organising and supporting two other political "parties, in promoting one ot which they had suffered financial disappointment. "They were, therefore," said the magistrate, "both concerned as political soldiers of fortune as. to the soundness of the arrangement for providing the party funds." It' was first suggested to the plaintiff that he might bo appointed as an organiser at £lO weekly and expenses. "1 think that he, gained the impression that ho was to be. a weekly servant and that the work was likely to last, until a month after flic election," continued the magistrate. There was an interview when he was shown an agreement, and his Wages were fixed by Davy at £6 weekly and expenses. About the same time (he plaintiff discussed the matter with the defendant William Goodfellow, who confirmed the statement that he was providing money to financo the concern in the early vSlages and intended collecting from others. He and the plaintiff subsequently chose office premises for the party. ST APT OF THE PARTY The magistrate said that the parly seemed to have come into being on October 29, 1934, when Goodfellow, Davy and Baulf and eight others formed themselves into an Auckland executive committee. The plaintiff was present at many meetings and therefore had full knowledge of the treasurer's reports. He began work on October 22 and was paid by Davy for one week. He was paid two cheques bv Goodfellow, one for £l6 13s 4d on October 31, two days after the formation of the party, and the other for £l6 on November 28, 1934. •

The party also paid all moneys owing to him with fair regularity until the middle of January of 1935. The magistrate outlined the differences which occurred between Goodfellow and Davy, and the former reducing his contributions. The position became so strained that in July, Goodfellow endeavoured unsuccessfully to have Davy removed from the Dominion executive, and although ho associated himself with the party until August 19, he saidiie did so only to try to "salvage" it. "SHIP POSTED MISSING"

"His metophor is apt," said the magistrate. "I think he thought there was a danger of shipwreck and that the crew had mutinied. Finally hc decided that his safest place was ashore and on August 10 he resigned from the party. "On the •morning... of November 28, the ship was posted as missing with the loss politically of all hands." The magistrate added that the evidence led him to suppose that the plaintiff went, into the venture in an unduly confident and perhaps speculative frame of mind, and the notion that the party funds would ho large and his position secure.

"I do not think lie intended to lonic to either of the defendants, Davy or Goodfellow, personally for payment," said the magistrate. ''Certainly during the first eight or nine months he knew nothing of J. B. Donald, T. C. A. Jlislop or Spencer Clark as his employers, for they wore not associated with the party until the middle of 1983. He says repeatedly that he expected to be paid out of the party funds to be controlled by the Dominion executive.

"I am not prepared to accept the plaintiff's story of personal verbal promise by Donald to pay the plaintiff's debt himself. I think Donald, who seems to have treated his rather penurious relative with generosity in times of stress, has told me the true version.'' "NO SENSE OF LOYALTY"

The magistrate said that- the plaintiff clearly was a man with no sense of loyally or sincerity. The correpondence showed that he aiid Davy, within a- few months ot the end of the Democrat Party, made unsuccessful overtures to enlist service in a party to whose defeat they had, in a measure, contributed.

Mr. Wilson added that the course of the transaction between the parties showed that it was never intended to vary the source of payment by imposing any personal responsibilities. The magistrate said he was not called upon to decide the issue as to whether the defendants, Davy and Hislop, held moneys on behalf of the party. It might bo that the plaintiff had a remedy against those moneys (if any) in an appropriate action. The defendant Hislop's statement remained uncontradicted that £IOOO of the money received by him was expressly stipulated as being to recompense him for any personal loss ho might suffer.

While ii was. regrettable that the plaintiff's debt remained unpaid, it would be wrong that any of llio defendants, some of whom had lost, heavily, should have to pay moneys for which it was never intended they should bo responsible.

Raul! announced this afternoon the intention to appeal to the Supreme Court and that his solicitor, had been instructed to take the necessary action.