TELLING FORTUNES

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1935, Page 3

TELLING FORTUNES

FOUR QUEENSLANDERS FINED. MAGISTRATE’S STERN COMMENT. “A lot of mischief is caused by fortune tellers. They are a menace as far as women are concerned,” said SeniorSergeant Bookless, who was prosecuting in the Police Court at Toowoomba, Queensland, recently, when four defendants were charged with professing to tell fortunes for sums of money. “You know what women are like in connection with anything to do with the future. They will go to any lengths to find out about it.”

The defendants were Richard Johnson, Edith Wood, Freda Taylor and Louise Allison. Each pleaded guilty. Edith Wood appeared with her face hidden by a dark veil. The magistrate asked her to show her face. At first she refused, but later consented.

The magistrate, Mr. Burne, read out to the defendants the Act under which they were charged, but he was frequently interrupted by interjections from Mrs. Wood. Further on in the Act, Mr. Burne read that he could fine each defendant £lO, to which Mrs. Wood loudly retorted: “How dare you!”—“Or could send you to prison for six months,” confined Mr. Burne. “How disgusting!” retorted Mrs. Wood.

Senior-Sergeant Bookless said that Policewoman Dare had made appointments with the four defendants. She visited the place of the defendant Johnson. The defendant had taken her left hand and asked if her husband was dead. He told her she was going to live a long time. He then got a pack of cards and shuffled them and told her other things. She gave him 2s. Something similar occurred at the residences of the other three defendants in different parts of the city. The magistrate convicted each defendant and fined each £5, in default three months’ imprisonment. An application for time to pay was refused, Mr. Burne saying that fortune-telling was senseless and stupid, and people going to get their fortunes told were just as senseless and stupid. “I won’t allow time to pay, you must either pay or go to gaol,” he said. At the resumption of the Court. in the afternoon, the magistrate decided to allow a month in which to pay the fine. He advised counsel and the defendants that they could ask the Minister of Justice for reduction in the fines.