LAW NOT BROKEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 563, 17 September 1932, Page 15

LAW NOT BROKEN.

Sunday Flights Permissible is Verdict. “THING IS ABSURD." (Special to the “ Star.") AUCKLAND, September 16. “ We want to encourage air-minded-ness as much as possible, and in many cases Sunday is the only possible day on which young people can go up. I am certainly not going to convict,” said Mr Hunt in the Police Court this morning, when a series of charges against officers of the Auckland Aero Club came before him. E. R. Boucher, president, and L. W. Swan, secretary, were charged on two counts with keeping a place open on Sunday for the purpose of transacting business, and D. M. Allan, flight instructor, answered two charges of working at his trade on Sunday. The charges were brought under the Police Offences Act. Detective-Sergeant M'Hugh said that following complaints to the police a constable visited the aerodrome on August 14 and found that aeroplanes were plying for hire. Mr Hunt: Why should they not ply for hire on Sunday? Taxis do, buses do, trains do. What other day could these people fly? Counsel for the Aero Club said that Allan was a flight instructor and passenger pilot. The club did not run a business. It certainly sold flights to the public, but the club was educating the public in air-mindedness. Counsel quoted a Wanganui case in which a magistrate held that an aeroplane was a carriage and came within the exemptions under the Act. “ The whole thing is absurd,” said Mr Hunt. “ I can get in a taxi or a bus and ride round the waterfront, but I can’t ride over it in an aeroplane! ”