SUBVERSIVE STATEMENT CHARGE

Evening Star, Issue 24324, 13 October 1942, Page 2

SUBVERSIVE STATEMENT CHARGE

JURY DISAGREES (P.A.) PALMERSTON N., Oct. 12. At the trial to-day of Charles Gough, secretary of the Wellington branch of the Dairy Factory Workers’ Union, who is alleged to have made, subversive statement* at the Oroua Downs dairy factory on February 24, the jury disagreed, and an application for a new trial was granted. Crown witnesses stated _ that Gough called them slaves for working for £4 10* a week when their “ cobbers in Wellington got £lO for half the work they did.’* He also told them that: if they liked to strike for one day they could Wield mor* power than the waterside' workers, the coalminers, and the freezing workers. .. The accused, on the other hand, denied using the word “strike.” He said the allegations were a gross misrepresents, tion of the facts. Ha had told the men, however, that the time must come for a showdown, by which he meant any stand the workers might take after the war. In his address to the jury, Mr W. P. Rollings, counsel for the accused, suggested that Gough’s defence had been prejudiced by the long delay in bringing the casa before the court. Months had elapsed following the completion of the police inquiries. Meanwhile memories had failed and men had left the factory. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, also commented on the delay, saying that it should not have happened. He could not see any reason why the proceeding* should not have been taken promptly. A police witness said that the AttorneyGeneral’s notice to proceed with the pro. secution had been received only two op three days before the lapse of the six months’ time limit.