N.Z. OLD LAWS

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 31, 28 January 1933, Page 3

N.Z. OLD LAWS

AND SOUTHERN CROSS FlffiJW NAMES TAKEN BY THE PO-i.CE Sir Charles Kingsford Shiitl has fallen foul of our law on fly in. for hire. Police Department office: New Plymouth took the nau—of some of the Southern Cross civ because the machine was being town for hire or reward on a Sunday. This law is to be the subjec.. of a A test case shortly. It will probably be heard before the Chief Justice (.-ir Michael Myers). New Zealand law prevents one from working at one’s trade on a Sunday within the public view. There are certain exceptions, including carriages which ply for hire. The whole argument depends on whether an airplane doing joy-riding is a “carriage." The Police Department has held that it is not, and has launched proceedings many times. Some convictions have been secured and some charges have been t .rown out. Recently, in Auckland, the secretary to the Auckland Aero Club (Mr. yy Swan) and the pilot-ins j uctoi (Mr. D. M. Allen) were charger! with carrying on their trade on a Sunday by carrying passengers for hire in a -vehicle that was not a carriage. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., dismissed the charge as ridiculous. It was absurd to suggest, he said, that a man < could take a taxi or a bus ana drive

over the Waterfront road, but could not take an aeroplane and fly over the Waterfront road. Action was taken against Mr. G. Bolt, assistant pilot-instructor to the Wellington Aero Club, for flying in Napier on a Sunday, and this charge was also dismissed. The Police Department and the New Zealand Aero Club are now to be the parties in a test case, which will seek to decide whether this old law is to apply to 'planes or not. Mr. S. E. Neilson, the secretary to the New Zealand Aero Club, has an assurance from the Minister of Justice and Defence (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) that no further actions will be launched until this case is decided. It is presumed, therefore, that the taking of the names of the Southern Cross crew in New Plymouth was purely a formality and that little more is likely to be heard of it.