£50 PINE FOR SEDITIOUS UTTERANCE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3026, 13 March 1917, Page 4

£50 PINE FOR SEDITIOUS UTTERANCE

:i - f 1 SEQUEL TO KREEZLN'G WORKS f- ' STRIKE. I H - r 'J'elcgrapli—Press Association. 1 : Hamilton, March 12. - _ Judgment was. delivered at the Mag--0 i istrate's Court at Hamilton to-day by t Mr. V Eawson, S.M., in connection '' ??• , , Bcditlou charges against 3 Jljoiiaol Francis Cusack, w*ho was charged rocently_ that on February Id ho published; seditious utterances in aspeech delivered to certain men em- | ployed .\t tho Horotui Freezing AVorks, ..J inciting them to strike, wliicii utterj auce was seditious in that the publicsj tion thereof liadi a toudency to inter- " ! iero with the supply of frozen meat reI quired by His Majesty for purposes in' connection with the preseut war, Tn » ' information was laid under tho atldi- ' tional War Regulations mado on Do cember J, 1016. Afc tho hearing Mr. P. liacassey, Crown Solicitor, reprej sented the Oram, and Mr. A. Moody, Auckland, appeared tor defendant. , During the course of a. lengthy judgment, tho magistrate said it seemed f incredible to any reasonable-minded J person that anyone in tho present state of affairs, where tho very existence of . th Empire was at stake, could be so ' eclfisb, so unpatriotic, so blind to our own real interests as to do anything r which might even indircctly adversely affect in the slightest degree the result. ' of. tho struggle for life or death now | jtaking place. Tho very idea, of men en- . gaged in ossential industries striking ' at tho proseut tinio naturally aioysed [ feelings of indignation in tho minds ' of rational people, but one Must not let ' thoso feelings interfere with a judicial " .estimato of tho ciroiunstauces of .tho case. Jsach ease must ho decided upon 1 its Tho evidence showed tliat defendant was a respectablo man and liot a professional agitator. 'If© regulations under which tho information was laid had only recently been passed, and probably tho full effort of their Provisions were not generally known, ho tendency of t.ho words usal by the defendant under tho circumstances was, in his opinion, to bring about it strike* and in l'act a striko actually followed. Defendant would bo lined £50, with costs £4 9s. Gd. Default was fixed at three months' imprisonment, and one month was given in which to pay.