VAGRANCY CHARGE

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1932, Page 5

VAGRANCY CHARGE

MAN WITH INCOME INELIGIBLE FR RELIEF CAMP. (By Telegraph—Per Preen Association WELLINGTON, June 10. Phillip Gordon Brazier, a forinei member of the Communist Party, pleaded riot guilty to a charge of vagrancy before Mr Page, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court, on the ground that lie had a private income of £1 per weei from overseas. Detective Sergeant Revell said than the accused was an agitator of an ex treme type. “I have heard him saying when he was speaking at Communist, open-air meetings that he would hob work under the present conitions. He describes the camps as slave camps and he does his utmost to prevent others from going to these camps.” Accused, added the Detective, had received a sentence of two months’ imprisonment on 24th of November for inciting lawlessness, and since his release from goal, lie had been convicted for drunkenness. .

Counsel for the accused said he had evidence to show accused was in receipt of money from abroad, and that ho had paid his board. The accused wag not now a member of the Communist Party, and lie had not taken part ill any Communist movement since his release from prison. Brazier stated that lie was a stud groom by trade, but he had taken on labouring in New' Zealand. Since his release from gad. he had been trying to get labouring work, but lie had not been successful, r While he was in goal, he had written to his parents, and ha,{* explained the position in New Zealand. They had sent him money and had undertaken to send him money each week. , „ * f

Detective Revell.:"“lt,is not a fact that you will not go to the camps, and work.”

Brazier: “It is a fact.that I am barred from the camps, because I am in recept of a private income.” Mr Page said that he would take time to consider the case, and he would remand the accused until Tuesday.