The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1886. The Criminal Code

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 10, 6 July 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1886. The Criminal Code

We haye just received a copy of the above, and one of its most important clauses is that headed "Crimes against religion," by which everyone is« liable to one year's imprisonment who- publishes any blasphemous libel, but whether any particular published matter is or is not a blasphemous libel is a question of fact. It is provided that no one is guilty of publishing a blasphemous libel for expressing in good faith and in decent language, or attempting to establish by arguments used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, any opinion whatever upon any religious subject. Every- . one is liable to two years' imprisonment, with hard labor, who obstructs i any minister of religion from lawfully officiating in any place of worship, or in any" churchyard ; or who offers violence to, or arrests upon or under the pretence of any civil process, any minister who is engaged in, or is about to be engaged in any of the rites or duties of his religion, or is going to perform the same or returning from the performance thereof. Everyone is liable to be fined forty pounds who, wilfully and without any lawful justification or excuse, disturbs any meeting of persons lawfully assembled for religious purposes, or in any way disturbs, or molests, or misuses any preacher, teacher, or person lawfully officiating at such meeting, or any person or persons there assembled. These enactments ought to exercise a deterrent influence on those disorderly persons in various parts of the colony who have found a delight in disturbing religious assemblies. MM———