NOMINAL PENALTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 117, 21 May 1942, Page 3

NOMINAL PENALTY

SHIRRING KE(i( LATIONS BREACH AT PICTON (PA.) Blenheim, May 20. If not the first case oi its Kind breugnt in New Zealand it was tne ius> ir Marlborough or Nelson, probably the South Island, remarked Senior-Sergeant Smyth in the Magistrate's Court, when Jack Baldick, a Tory Channel settler, was charged with a breach of the Shipping Safety Regulations covering small craft. Baldick admitted travelling at night from. Tory Channel to Picton and back without hrst obtaining the special permission. The police explained that no small era It was permitted to move in territorial waters after dark without special authority, with the exception of rowing boats. The regulations also required that small crart left unattended be rendered unusable by the run ex a! of some vital part. The Japanese made enormous use of such small craft in invasions, and it was essential to see that the same thing did not happen here. Defendant pleaded ignorance of the regulations. “No doubt the publicity will gradually sink into the people’s minds." ccmmented the magistrate, Mr. T. E. Maunsell, imposing a nominal penalty.