ANTI- SHOETING REGULATI – ONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1669, 1 February 1917, Page 2

ANTI- SHOETING REGULATI - ONS.

THE anti-shouting regulations are, on the whole, observed in the breach rather than in the observance. The frequency with which they are broken was a subject of strong comment by Mr E. C. Culteii, S.M., when giving his decision in the Auckland Police Court on Saturday in a case where a man was charged with “shouting” (says the New Zealand Herald). “Apparently the law against ‘shouting’ is being openly and llagrantly broken in Auckland,” said Mr Cutten. “Here is a ease where a constable enters a hotel in plain clothes, for

reasons of his own, and, although there were only live people in the bar, sees the law* openly broken.” It seemed a marvellous thing, continued the Magistrate, that an officer placed in such circumstances should be able, on his. own evidence, as opposed to that of live witnesses to get a conviction. That was the result of a rigorous cross-examina-tion. Here were live people who had varied their stories and statements, under cross-examination, to such an extent that the variations corroborated the constable’s evidence. Evidently breaches of the regulations were so common that the licensee, barmaid, and the public condoned them, and it showed a sa.d want of responsibility on the part of those concerned. That the constable’s unsupported word had succeeded in carrying the conviction that the story told for the defence was not true —and he had no hesitation in entering a conviction —-was also very regrettable. The law, continued Mr Cut ten, had been passed with the object of protecting the worker, a man who' could not afford to spend much money on drink. Yet the working man did not respect the law. However, it would have to stop, and, if the tines which were at present being imposed were not a sufficient deterrent, stronger measures would have to be taken.