TUTAENUI BRACH W.D.E.N.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 110, 13 May 1942, Page 1

TUTAENUI BRACH W.D.E.N.

A general meeting of the above was held in the Tutaemu Hall on Thursday. May 7, Mrs. G. G. Oliver presided. Notice was given of the fortneoming Wellington Centra! Provincial meeting to be held in Feilding on May lb. The treasurer, Mrs. Sydney Smith, read the report of the branch finances which revealed a healthy condition. The following sums were passed lor payment:—Wellington Central Provincial Fund £5, Rest Horne £l, Tutaenui Hall £1 7s 6d. Mrs Smith was accorded a vote of thanks for her report. Members were asked to contribute 3d each meeting towards a fund lor financing the purchase of local soldiers parcels. The secretary was asked to make various purchases to hold in readiness for these parcels Members who collect stamps for the Manurewa Children’s Home were requested to hand in their collections to Miss ' I Moyna Sutton for forwarding to this ’ | home. The next meeting was arranged tc 1 be held on July 10. > The secretary, Mrs. F. R. 11. Brice resigned from the secretaryship after holding office for eight years. Nc nominations for the vacant position were forthcommg from members present. The president undertook the responsibility of finding a secretary by the next meeting. I Mrs. Little, health nurse, gave an instructive address on emergency obstetrics which was listened to will: great interest—a vote of thanks was accorded her by Mrs. L. Duckworth and carried by acclamation. Supper was served at the conclusion of the meetinn.

ALLEGED CONTEMPT OF COURT JUDGE DISMISSES APPLICATION (P.A.) Christchurch. May 11. Saying that ho was unable to regard the publications complained of as contempt of Court by having a tendency to endanger a fair trial. Mr. Justice Northcroft, in the Supreme Court to-day, dismissed the application of the Attorney-General for the committal of John Mathison, publisher of the Christchurch Star-Sun when he gave his judgment on the case heard last Friday. Tlv’ Attorney-General had asked the Court to exercise its jurisdiction against. Mathison following nublication of two articles in the Star-Sun, said the judgment. One gave an account of an interview with a man named Denton about an assault on him by two young men. The oth< n r gave an account of the appearance of the two men in the Magistrate’s Court, and it was alleged that a fair trial had been prejudiced because th? juxtaposition of the articles allowed the public to associate the men mentioned in the Court report with statements made by Denton about the assault, although some of Denton’s statements would not be admissible evidence against the men when they appeared in Court. “It is not for this Court to express approval or disapproval of the manner in which a newspaper presents its news as long as the administration of justice is not interfered with." commented the Judge. “In this case the newspaper may have thought he narrative acquired either dramatic effect or greater credibility bv its being given as the version of the victim himself. As I think Ihe public were entitled to entertain legitimate curiosity about the incident, and as in the nature of the case the happening could be described to the reporters only by the storekeeper or by his alleged assailants, and these were not likelv to be informants, it seems unimportant that the former was expressly staled to be. in fact, the .n--formant. The jurisdiction involved Is to be applied only in the clearest cases and where there is no doubt about, contempt. Tn mv opinion it Is very doubtful'whet her this publication had the tendency alleged so as to make it. a contempt."