PUNISHED TWICE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20283, 18 April 1934, Page 7

PUNISHED TWICE.

Criticism of Unemployment Board by S.M. RESTITUTION DEMANDED. Criticism of the Unemployment Board in demanding full restitution from men who had been convicted on unemployment charges irrespective of the amount of restitution fixed by the Courts, was expressed by Mr 11. P. Lawry, S.M., this morning when dealing with such a case. He declared that such a practice amounted to punishing a man twice, a position in which he was not going to put any offender. He was not going to have his powers interfered with by the board. The matter came up when the Magistrate suggested placing an offender on probation, at which stage the probation officer (Mr W. H. Darby) said he would like to make a statement before a penalty was fixed. Mr Darby said that a very unsatisfactory position had arisen regarding the placing of men on probation in view of a very extraordinary attitude that the heads in Wellington seemed to have taken up. The department made a practice of demanding full restitution, and it appeared that the adoption of such an attitude amounted to the over-riding of the powers of the Court. Mr Lawry said that the authorities were inflicting a greater penalty than he had imposed, and went on to cite a case of a man being ordered by the board to refund money at the rate of 2s 6d a week, in addition to a fine in Court. He was not going to see a man punished twice. The department in Christchurch was only acting under instructions from Wellington, explained Mr R. T. Bailey, local officer in charge of the Labour Department. * I don t intend to have my powers interfered with by the Unemployment Board,” declared the Magistrate. “If they are going to take up the attitude of interfering with the punishment of the Court, I am going to convict a man and discharge him. lam not going to stand for it. I am not going to put a man in the position of being punished twice. have done what I can to see money go back to the source from .whence it came, but if they are going to insist on getting the full restitution in addition to my punishment, it is no use my making any order for a refund.”