JURY DISAGREES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20913, 13 October 1942, Page 2

JURY DISAGREES

SUBVERSION CHARGE DAIRY WORKERS' OFFICIAL DELAY IN PROSECUTION (P.A.) PALMERSTON N.. this day. At the trial of Charles Gough, secretary of the Wellington branch of the Dairy Factory Workers’ Union, who is alleged to have made subversive statements at Orua 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 ior £4 H)s a week when their cobbers in Wellington sot £lO for half the work they did. He also told them that it they liked to strike for one day they could wield more power than the watersiders. coaL miners and freezing workers.

The accused, on the other hand, denied using the word strike and said the allegations were a gross misrepresentation of the facts. However, he had told them that the time must come for a show-down by which he meant any stand the workers might take after the war. In his address to the jury, Mr. W. R. Rollings, counsel lor tne accused, suggested that Gough's defence had been prejudiced by the long delay in bringing the case to court. Months had elapsed following the completion of police inquiries. Meanwhile, memories had failed and men had left the factory. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, also commented on the delay, saying it should not have happened. He could not see any reason why pro ce.edings had not been token promptly

A police witness said the AttorneyGeneral’s notice to ' the prosecution was only received two or three days before the.lapse of the six months' time lirhit