SPIRITS AND FORTUNETELLING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 119, 6 February 1918, Page 5

SPIRITS AND FORTUNETELLING

MINISTER RECEIVES A DEPUTATION. A firm refusal was given by tho Hon. T. M. Wilford yesterday to a deputation which waited upon him on behalf of the National Association of Spiritualist Churches of New Zealand, with a request that tho law bo amended in such a way that genuine spirit mediums might be recognised, and might not be prosecuted for practising. _ Mr. W. C. Nation, for the deputation, said that the reason why the association had been formed was in order that mediifms might bo protected. It was admitted that there were many charlatans claiming to be mediums, but out of somo two hundred professing mediums tho association recognised only twenty, and he claimed that they practised in good faith. They were not doing the thing to make money. In the courso of his reply, Mr. Wilford said that he would not discuss whether there was or was not any foundation for spiritualistic beliefs, but he was not yet convinced that they were right. He pointed out to the deputation that no medium was in any danger of punishment by' the courts in this country unless for foretelling the future—"telling fortunes" fees. Nothing else that a medium did in the course of his work as a medium could make him liable to a penalty under tho law.