ILLEGAL USE OF TERM “DOCTOR”

Evening Star, Issue 23381, 26 September 1939, Page 12

ILLEGAL USE OF TERM “DOCTOR”

PRINCIPAL OF ENGINEERING SCHOOL FINED [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, September 25. _ The right of the principal of a private engineering school to use the title “ Dr " and the initials “ M.E.” and “ M.M.” after his name was questioned in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. The defendant was Elmore William Bender, of the Polytechnic School of Engineering, who was charged that he “ publicly used in connection with his trade or calling certain initials and abbreviations of words intended and likely to cause any person to believe contrary to fact that he held a degree, diploma, or certificate issued by a university or other institution, society, or association.”

The magistrate (Mr E. C. Levyey, S.M.) held that the use of the title 11 Dr ” infringed the Statute, and fined defendant £2, with costs. Detective-sergeant F. Sinclair, who prosecuted, explained that for several years the defendant had conducted his school of engineering under the name of Dr Bender. The title and the qualifications implied by the letters after the name no doubt went a Ion" way towards inducing pupils to enrol. The police had made inquiries, Bender claimed that the initials signified' “ mining engineer ” and “ master mechanic,” and that certificates from the Pittsburgh Technical Institute entitled him to call himself “ Dr.” Detective J. J. _ Halcrow gave evidence concerning interview's with the defendant, who allowed the police to photograph a diploma purporting to have been issued to him in 1909 by the Technical Institute of Pittsburg. There were photographs on the wall of the defendant’s place of business of other certificates, but Bender said that his papers had been lost in the w'reck of the Oceanic off the coast of Scotland in 1913> Witness later produced to the defendant an enlarged photograph of the signatures and the date ou diploma and asked the defendant if he had interfered with them. Bender said that the diploma was sent out to him in New Zealand, and as the signature and date were not clearly visible owing to the action of sea w'ater, he fiad drawn them in himself. Addressing the bench, Mr F. D. Sargent (for Bender) submitted that the case should be dismissed. It was an unusual one and of importance to the defendant. There was no reported case on which to interpret the meaning of the section under which Bender w r as charged, hut he understood that in a similar Auckland case the prosecution was dismissed. Counsel (Contended that Bender had not used the title Dr ” publicly within the meaning of the section. There was nothing of this kind on the window of his premises or in his advertisements, and the prospectus referred to in court was issued, not by the defendant, but by a company. The section' of the Statute was ill-drawn, and he submitted further that the words “ a degree, a diploma, or certificate issued by a university, institution, society, or association ” were qute broad enough to absolve Bender. In view of the diplomas he held the use of the initials would not delude the public, and initials now were used for all kinds of things. “ The word ‘ Dr ’ is not a term of magic, and its original meaning was no more than teacher,” said Mr Sargent, Detective-sergeant Sinclair submitted if a master mechanic was entitled to use the initials M.M.A,, a butcher’s assistant ivas entitled to call himself B.A. Moreover, there was a grave doubt owing to discrepancies in the names and dates whether Bender was the original holder of the diplomas. He admitted having filled one in in material parts. The Magistrate said that doubt had been raised in his. mind on this point, but the onus of proof was on the police, and it had not been discharged. The court had no doubt that the use of the word “ Dr ” by the defendant was an infringement of the section. By this the defendant held out to the public something that might lead it to believe that he was a fully qualified graduate of a properly-constituted body which had power to grant the title and had so conferred it on him. The use of the letters might well influence some persons to think that Bender was more than ordinarily qualified in certain directions,, but he was not prepared to say whether this would bring him within the purview of the statute. The defendant would be convicted on his use of the title “ doctor.”

11l fixing the penalty the Magistrate said that ho would not treat the offence from a very serious point of view, because of the lapse of time before Bender’s use of the titles was challenged.