THE BOGUS PARSON

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 2, 18 January 1937, Page 13

THE BOGUS PARSON

His Activities are Increasing HouBeholders »hould be on tSiohr guard Rgainst a particularly cunning Kind o# crook who inaaquerades in the garb of a clergyman, says a London paper. He and his "brethren" are increasing in numbera, and their activities are spreading With a plausihle tongue — without which their efforts would be unavailing — they call from door to door either asking .alrns for some specified but phantom "work," or selling booklets or sheets that appear to be parish magazipes. The police have often had eomo of these fraudulent persons in charge, and, on conviction, they have been found to be men with prison records. Lately there appears to have been a considerable burst of activity on the part of these cadgers. Perhaps it is owing to the advent of Ohristmas, at * which time, it has been found in past years, they reap a rich harvest by trading on the charitable instincts of fche public. What make* the work of the police the more difficult in rootlng out these impostors is the fact that it is no offenoe to dress up as a parson. Ih addition, owing to the laxity of our laws relating to charities and collections for them, many of these bogus parsons do run something in the nature of a society. And even if all the income goes in "expenses" the oi-ganisation and those eonnected with it are immune. In a case recently before the Courts it transpired that over £900 had been cdllected for the alleged charity— but only £9 had been dispensed to the needy persons on whose behalf the amount was subscribed. There has for a long time been under consideration a proposal to make unlawful the wearing" of a clergyman's dress by any person not qualified so to do. The Uniforms Act, 1894, makes it an offence to wear without authority the unifoi-m of the fighting SdfVices, or to bring contempt upon it. The Police Act, 1919, makes a similar provijion xvith regard to the ainiform of the police. In a Surrey -district a short tinie ago a poiic-s ofixcer followed a person dimssed as a clergymaxx, and discov* ered that 85 per cexxt. of the hotxsewives ih one street had conttibuted sums varying frohx tWc ihce to a shillings. it is this sox*t of siiccesfl that encourges the rogues.