Disorderly Behaviour DEMONSTRATORS FINED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 3

Disorderly Behaviour DEMONSTRATORS FINED

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 11.

Four people who chained themselves to the pillars of Parliament House when the United States Vice-President (Mr Humphrey) visited Wellington on February 20. were convicted and fined £5 each and costs in a reserved decision issued today by Mr J. A. Wicks, S.M.

The four, Paul Marinas Melser, aged 20, a student, Janice Mary McEllwee, aged 22, a student, Nicholas Vai Rosenberg, aged 20, a student, and Elener Kuna, aged 24. a clerk, all pleaded not guilty to a charge of disorderly behaviour within view of a public place when they appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on March 2.

Mr N. R. Taylor appeared for the defendants. At the hearing the Magistrate said he acknowledged the sincerity of the defendants, but did not feel it to be a political matter. “It was agreed by both the prosecution and counsel for the defence,” said the Magistrate, “that the only matter which I had to decide was whether the actions of the defendants in chaining themselves to the pillars of Parliament House for the purpose of making a silent protest, coupled with their refusal to leave when asked to do so by the police, constituted the offence of disorderly behaviour. “I would have been interested to hear from counsel or the police what action was taken in respect of Mrs Pankhurst and the suffragettes in England who chained themselves to the railings of Buckingham Palace earlier this century, or what action was later taken in England against the campaigners for nuclear disarmament during the socalled ‘ban-the-bomb’ demonstrations. Precedent Possible

“It may be that they were charged with offences under similar legislation to ours, and I would have had a precedent to follow.

“It is significant that in the present case no action was

taken to prosecute the people who were carrying banners outside Parliament House, but complied with the request of the police to retire to a certain portion of the grounds. “Had the defendants complied with the request to join the other demonstrators, it is clear that no action would have been taken against them, because this was clearly a political demonstration with no element of criminality in it. “It is quite clear, that to be ‘disorderly’ the conduct need not provoke a breach

of the peace or be likely to create a breach of the peace, but in my view it would be disorderly conduct for anyone to chain himself to the gate post of a private dwelling and then refuse to leave, and similarly it is disorderly conduct to chain oneself to the pillars of Parliament House. “It is not conduct which is in accordance with the ordinary rules of decorum. It is not good conduct or proper conduct. “1 feel that the action of the defendants in placing themselves in a position where they could be charged with trespass, and in voluntarily placing it outside their own control to comply with the directions of the police, went beyond the standards of good conduct generally accepted by right-thinking people,” said the Magistrate.