FORTUNE-TELLERS FINED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 72, 18 December 1917, Page 4

FORTUNE-TELLERS FINED

JUDGMENT IN SPIRITUALIST CASE. In the Magistrate's Court yesterday Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., fined Jona- j than (or John) Page, Florence Levine,! and Mrs. Barton £5 each, with fairly substantial costs, for undertaking 10 tell fortunes. The information had been heard on December 6, and his Worship had then reserved his judgment. ' The only case in which a written judgment was delivered was that cf Pago, who was a member of the National Association of Spiritualist Churches, and a medium officially recognised by the Church. His defence was that he did nothing more than give a seanco in which he bona fide exercised his mediumistic powers. He accepted the polico statements as to what lie had told the two women who were sent to visit him. He swore that during* the interviews he wa3 in a condition of trance. His Worship was satisfied from the ovidenco that the defendant's actions amounted to commission of the offence charged, though thoy were performed under the guise of a spiritualistic seance. His Worship reviewed certain "information givon by tlio defendant to the women, which was obviously incorrect, and was based on the assumption that something had happened that as a matter of fact had never happened at all. ine Court found that there was an lnten- , - tion to deceive- and tliat was sufficient. "No one can bo called in question for his religious belief," said Ins Worship,- "but that belief may not bo used as a cloak to justify breaohes of the law."