SUNDAY SERVICE DISTURBED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2105, 20 March 1920, Page 4

SUNDAY SERVICE DISTURBED.

TWO YOUNG MEN. FINED £5, EACH. Charges of interfering with the orderly conduct of a religious service on a Sunday evening were made against two young men —James Me-

Clnre and Robert Shirelf—in the Christchurch Police Court. Evidence'was given hy'Bctsio Fraser that she and her husband were conducting a service in a hall in (Manchester Street. A hand of larrikins entered, the hall. They tore up a Gospel banner, threw books about-, and also took some hooks away with them. ■ Then they all rushed downstairs and wrenched off the side of the bottom portion of the stair and kicked it down the street. Air Twyneham, wlj,o appeared for Shireff: Is there anything in your preaching that rouses the animosity of the crowd'?—Nothing, except of punishment that (hose who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will receive hereafter. That seems to arouse the animosity of men. Constable Smart said he was on duly at the hall. There were several lads in the hack of the hall, the I«■() defendants among them. The young fellows were constantly interrupting. During the service a hymn hook was thrown at the preacher. Several of the larrikins smoked in the hall. Generally the whole proceedings were uproarious. Air Twyneham said Sl.nreff was not a larrikin in any sense of Cue word. lie was a respectable young man, and his employer spoke very highly of him. After remarking that the law provided absolute freedom of worship, the magistrate, Mr S. E. McCarthy, said he had come to the conclusion that both defendants were guilty, and as the preachers belonged to (hat class of people who would not defend themselves by physical violence Ihe action of the dclendants had been both cowardly and ungcnlIcmanlv. He lined cadi oi the defendants ,G 5 and costs, in default one month’s imprisonment.