BREACH OF THE GAMING ACT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 822, 5 April 1910, Page 2

BREACH OF THE GAMING ACT.

A NEWSPAPER FINED.

Certain charges, involving alleged breaches of the Gaming Act, were preferred against the New Zealand Times Co., Ltd., and^

Pierce Charles Freeth before Mr W. R. Haselden, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court Wellington, yesterday. Mr Myers, for the Crown, intimated that, after consultation with Mr Dalziell, counsel for the defence, it had been agreed to proceed with one of the charges only, wherein the defendants were separately prosecuted for having on September x, 1909, “established a scheme by which prizes of money are competed for by mode of chance.”

Mr Dalziell explained that the conditions of the scheme were that the competitors were asked to cut out advertisements, which were placed in a ballot box, and the competitor whose selection of a particular advertisement tallied with that previously made by an independent person, was awarded a prize. The question was raised as to whether such a scheme would constitute a breach of the Gaming and Lotteries Act, and it was decided to take some course which would place it outside the Act, while at the same time keep* ing faith with the public. When application was made in the Supreme Court for a declaratory judgment, Mr Justice Cooper declined jurisdiction. It was, therefore decided, after consultation with the Crown Solicitor, to plead guilty to the charge stated. He asked for a nominal penalty, as the defendants had agreed to pay the costs of the Crown in the Supreme Court and Magistrate’s Court actions. It would be impossible for a similar scheme to be undertaken by anyone in the future.

Mr Myers agreed. He recognised the defendants’ difi*£tSh.y, but a conviction would have been inevitable. He thought that a nominal penalty of £2 would meet the case.

The defendant, Pierce Charles Freeth, was fined £2, with court costs ys, while a nominal imposition of is with costs ys was recorded against the defendant company,