MINISTER CHARGED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1939, Page 3

MINISTER CHARGED

ALLEGED OBSTRUCTION OF POLICE. TWO COMPANIONS ALSO BEFORE COURT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Described as members of the New Zealand Christian Pacifist Society, the Rev. Ormond Edward Burton, M.A., minister of the Webb Street Methodist Church, Michael Young, printer, aged 22, and Neil Henry Trail, costing clerk, aged 21, appeared before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday, charged with obstructing policemen in the execution of their duty. Burton was alleged to have obstructed Sub-Inspector D. J. O’Neill, and Young and Trail were alleged to have obstructed Sergeant J. McKie. Sub-Inspector O’Neill asked for a remand till tomorrow. Burton, he said, was apparently, the leader of the three, who were members of the New Zealand Christian Pacifist Society. The charges arose out of an address he had been giving to a crowd of between 200 and 300 people outside Parliament Buildings. In style, the address was against recruiting, and when told to stop he said that he would go on tomorrow and every day throughout the war. The magistrate (to Burton): Are you asking for bail? x Burton: No. I have no money available for the purpose. The magistrate: If you give an undertaking not to address another meeting I am prepared to let you out. Burton: I am not prepared to give that undertaking. The magistrate: Then I am afraid I cannot let you out. I do not know the circumstances of the case, but you will have to be careful you do not say anything seditious or more serious charges might be made in these difficult times.

Young and Trail both stated that they, too, did not wish to be bailed out.