OBSTRUCTION CHARGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 287, 5 December 1939, Page 5

OBSTRUCTION CHARGE

PACIFIST MEETING KEFLSAL TO DISPERSE Michael Young, a printer, of Wellington, who addressed a meeting in Chew s Lane on November 24 on the subject of the war, was charged in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., with wilfully obstructing a public place by holding i meeting and with aiding in the commission pt negligent obstruction by the crowd. The police constable who first poke to the defendant said Young aid he was representing a pacifist society. Some of his sayings were very • tose to sedition. The magistrate said die defendant was not charged with edition. Young pleaded not guilty. Constable C. W. Naylor said that at 3.i0 p.m. on November 24 the whole of Jhew’s Lane was obstructed by a crowd to which the defendant was speaking. Young said he did not have a permit to speak, and the constable asked him to move along. The defendant asked the crowd to form a lane to allow through traffic, but it did not do so and the defendant refusal to move. 1 he constable was joined by two other police officers, and the defendant then . aid he had made his point and moved on. The street was blocked from 8.40 p.m. to 9 o'clock. The defendant was dealing with matters connected with the war, and some of his sayings were very close to sedition. He said he was representing a pacifist society a people’s movement of some description. magistrate remarked that the defendant was not charged with sedition. Other police evidence was given in corroboration. The defendant, in the witness-box, said the meeting was an anti-war meeting. The first constable told him to stop and he refused to do so, but when it was pointed out to him that he could cause an obstruction he said he would attempt to keep a lane clear for traffic. He told the constable that there was plenty of room at the back I and people could get through if they *

wished. After the constable left he asked the crowd to form a lane, and one of the defendant’s friends assisted the clearance. He had been unable to obtain a permit to speak from the City Council. The defendant said he thought there was more behind the action of the police than obstruction. It seemed to be more an attempt to prevent people who were pacifists from expressing their opinions. The magistrate said he did not know whether the section under which the defendant was charged covered the | alleged offence. I Decision was reserved.