RACECOURSE RADIO

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1935, Page 5

RACECOURSE RADIO

CHARGE OF ILLEGAL USE. WIRELESS ACT IN QUESTION. By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. Rec. 7 p.m. Sydney, April 25. The Police Court proceedings regarding the Rosehill wireless case concluded yesterday, the magistrate reserving his decision owing to the validity of the Wireless Telegraphy Act at present being challenged in the High Court. Walter Bedford, aged 25, is charged with using an unauthorised wireless transmitting set on the Rosehill racecourse. The other defendants are charged with aiding and' abetting the offence. Official radio inspectors have lately been intrigued by mysterious messages transmitted from suburban racecourses and have adopted all sorts of means of discovering the delinquent, said a cable received on April 6. Their efforts were rewarded at the Rosehill course when with the aid of a vest-pocket short-wave detector a man was observed behaving suspiciously, constantly fidgeting with his pocket in the saddling paddock. The Rosehill police, acting in concert with radio inspectors, searched the man and allegedly found a most ingenious transmitting set, with an aerial and a battery strapped to the man’s body. Two other men were later discovered in possession of a miniature receiving set located near a broadcasting stand outside' the course.. The authorities alleged- an illegal set was used to transmit betting and other racing features on a secret short wave. The police arrested altogether five men. They were Rufus Theodore Naylor, aged 52, investor, Charles Rowles, aged 26, radio mechanic, Eric Gordon, aged 32, journalist and radio announcer, Bert Sheely, aged 47, clerk, and Walter Bedford, aged 25, electrician and mechanic.