SHARE-HAWKING CHARGE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 29, 18 February 1937, Page 5

SHARE-HAWKING CHARGE

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• : House-to-House Visits At CliHsteKtlrcli OPENING OF miAL

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CHBISTCHURCH, This fikjf. The trial of Gsmond Arthur Bri3g& water on eleveix chargeS of '^arbhawkingl' conunenced in the Sfipreine Court this morning. In each case th'O text bf the charge was, tiiat he wefit from house to hbtise offerifig iqr scription or pufchase to a member of the public shates ifi the Austraiarosn Investment Cotyorktion . Ltd. . , . . . wj. Mr justice Northcroft prttnded .'Sfid the pirosecutor was Mr W. B. LYfecetiiif. Accused Was Tepresented .by Mr H. F. ' O 'Leary, K.C., of Wellington, and him was Mr D- W. Bussell. Mr LasceUes direeted the attention of the jury tb, th'at sectiofi of the vCompafiies Act, 1933, under which' tho charges wefe laid. It read: *'It shall not be lawful for any person .to fio froin hontse to house bfferifig sEares foe subscription or pfirchase to the public or any member of the public." That, . said Mr. Lascelles, did not apply . to places of business or to shkreS in dkiry cp-bperatxve coinpanies and shares. of other eo-operative concefnu. All tho people visited by Bridgewater, he cbfiH tinued, had previously acquired debintures in the Executive Ifivestifiefit Trust of New Zealand Ltd. There W4& a lifik betweCn that company and the Australasian Investment Corporatipn, the company in which the accused was interested. That company had as qfib of its objects the acquieition of debofi-* tures of the Investment Executive Trust oi New Zealand Ltd. , . It might be submitted, said, .Mil Lascelles, that "house to house" had a liifiited ineaning and would be applxc-" able only iri such a case as that bf a hawker wiib wottld actually gd , ffbm k house to hofise right along a street. Thfi Grbwfi maintained that no such narrbw. interpretatiofi could be placed upon tHa wording of the Act. It was maintained that the accused, in visiting ofio or two people a day, as he did, at their homes was guilty of going from hofiso to house oft'ering shares for subscrilH tion or purchase. In fairnefcs, it had to be said that the accused had had previous business dealings with the. people coeemed. John Harrison Campbell, Tetirecl grocer, said in evidefiee that he had bought . some £10 worth of debentures in the Investinent Executive TruBt, the transactiom being completed in Bridgwater's office. In July, the accused visited witness 's house at Cashmere View street and induced him to tr&nSfer his interest in the Investment Executive Trust for sharse ifi the Australasian Investment Corporation. Witnesn had not asked Bridgwater to call .upon him. He used the premises at Caah? mere. View street purely as a dwelling house. The case is proceeding.