SHIPPING REGULATIONS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1161, 31 October 1917, Page 7

SHIPPING REGULATIONS.

ALLEGED NEWSPAPER BREACH. Press Association. AUCKLAND, October 29. The Brett Printing and Publishing Company was charged at the Police Court that on September 21, without the written consent of the military authorities, it published in the Auckland '' Star'' a statement as to the whereabouts of a seagoing ship not exclusively engaged in coastal traffic in New Zealand. The vessel referred to was a motor-launch that arrived at Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Mr May, for the Crown, contended that the launch in question was a seagoing vessel. James Percy Ridings, Collector of Customs and Reporting Officer to the Naval Department, said that a "Star" reporter called upon him for information regarding the launch, and he warned the reporter that no information should be published until it was submitted to the authorities. Mr McVegh, for the defence, submitted that the scope of the regulations related not to such vessels as a launch, but to larger vessels. Counsel handed in a copy of a proclamation of the Governor of Tahiti warning shipping of danger in the Pacific. T. W. Leys, editor and director of the "Star," said that when he received the report he considered it did not come within the regulations. Decision was reserved.