“DOCTOR” TITLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20052, 26 September 1939, Page 2

“DOCTOR” TITLE

E CHALLENGE UPHELD ..... § ENGINEERING TUTOR f BREACH OH STATUTE | CHRISTCHURCH FINE ,!j (Bor Press Association.) 5 CHRISTCHURCH, this day. ■' 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 iK the Magistrate's Court yesterday. The defendant was Elmore William Render, of the Polytechnic School of Engineering, who was charged that he “publicly used in connection with his trade or calling certain initials arid abbreviations, of words intended and likely to cause any person to believe contrary to’fact, that, he held aiilegree, diploma‘or certificate issued by a university or other institution, society Or association.” 'The “Magistrate, Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M., Held that ithe use of the title “Dr.” litfririged the statute, and fined tjje defendant £2 with costs. , 'Delective, Sergeant F. Sinclair, who prosecuted, explained that, fdF‘sev6ral years, -the defendant had conducted ,lj!s school engineering under ' the ngme cf' Dr. 'Bender. The title and S' alifteations' implied by the. letters er the rame.no doubt went a long way towards inducing .pupilsv.to enrol. .The police had made inquiries .and Bender claimed that signified “mining engineer”: r ifeand "master mechanic” and that certifi-, cates from the Pittsburgh Technical Institute entitled him to call himself “doctor.” Y Pittsburgh Diploma Detective' J J. Halcrow, gave evidence ’concerning interviews With the defendant who allowed., the police to photograph a diploma'.purporting''to have been issued to.him in 1909. by tile Technical Institute of Pittsburgh. There were photographs on the wall •of "the defendant’s "place of -business and of other certificates, but Bender said that his papers had been lost in the wreck of the Oceanic off the coast’of Scotland in 1913...,., The witness, later produced to the defendant an. enlarged photograph of tft>signatuhpV- and- date- of— the diploma and asked the defendant if he had interfered with ,+hem. Bender said that the diploma was sent out to'him in New Zealand .and. as-,,*fhe signatute and date were not clearly visible, owing to the action of -sea water, he, had drawn them’:'in himself.

Addressing the bench, Mr. F. Dl Sargent, who appeared for. Bender, submitted that the case should be dismissed,- It was an unusual one and oi* importance ."id the '. 'defendant. There was no reported case on which to interpret the meaning of the section under which Bender was charged, but he, understood that, in a similar Auckland .‘.case, the prosecution was dismissed.

' i Title Not Displayed 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 _wast 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, diploma or.-cer-tificate issued by a 'university,', institution, society or association" were 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'■ tilings. I‘The word ‘doctor’ is not, a term ol magic and its original , meaning was no more than teacher,” said Mr. Sargent. ' ’ ' 'Mj-Detective-Sergeant Sinclair, . submitted that if a master mechanic was entitled to use the initials M.M., a butcher’s assistant was entitled to call himself a B.A. Moreover there was a grave doubt, owing to discrepancies in names and dates, whether,, .Bender was--the original Bolder of the diplomas. He admitted filling one in -in material parts. Infringement of Section

-The Magistrate said that doubt had {j.een-raisedi '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 .ap infringement . of, the section. By this the defendant held out to the public something that Blight lead it to believe that he .was a fully-qualified graduate of a pro-perly-constituted, body, which, 'had power to grant a 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 ‘Jn 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 "Dr.”

In fixing the penalty, the Magistrate said that he 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. . .