SPOKE WITHOUT A PERMIT

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 9

SPOKE WITHOUT A PERMIT

DUNEDIN LABOUR MAN FINED. POSSIBILITY OF AN APPEAL. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Sept. 10. John Gilchrist, a well-known Labour speaker, was this morning fined £1 for delivering an address in a public place without a permit from the council, and convicted without penalty for causing an obstruction in the street. ■Mr. H. W. Bundle, S.M., in the course of a reserved judgment, held that the by-law was valid. He said that free speech meant no more than equal freedom to all citizens fully to express themselves, provided they did not offend against the law. The use of the streets was primarily for the passage of the public and the council, alive to the danger of congestion, had made a bylaw restricting public speaking, which 1 he considered reasonable. The proper setting for a political meeting was a hall or reserve. The streets were formed to walk on, not to talk in. Counsel for Gilchrist mentioned the possibility of an appeal, thus depending on the decision in a similar Auckland case. <