THE IMPUGNED MARRIAGE.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17995, 14 April 1930, Page 5

THE IMPUGNED MARRIAGE.

DEACON SILSON FINED. MAGISTERIAL COMMENT. Liable to a penalty op £ioo. (By Telegraph..—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Monday. Louis Alfred Silson, a gardener by occupation, and a deacon of the Pentacostal Church of New Zealand, otherwise known as the assemblies of God, was to-day fined £5 and costs (£2 18s) on a charge that on January 12 “In the East Street Hall of the Pentacostal Church of New Zealand, known as the Assemblies of God, in New Zealand, did allege, expressly or by implication, that Hawkins and his wife (being persons lawfully married), were not truly and sufficiently married.” The prosecution was the first ever heard under the Marriage Amendment Act. The Magistrate, Mr Hunt, said that Silson in a letter sent to the complainants sajd : “We have no further fellow-ship with Mr and Mrs Hawkins under the present conditions.” Mr Hunt traversed the evidence and said : “ Now this coming from their spiritual adviser to religious-minded people like the Hawkins must be very distressing and disturbing/ and is the very mischief the act was passed to prevent.” As it was the first prosecution the penalty would not be heavy although the offenders were liable to a fine of £IOO.