OTAHUHU.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 429, 26 November 1918, Page 3

OTAHUHU.

ALLEGED SEDITIOUS UTTERANCE.

THE CHABGE DISMIBSED. The 'Magistrate (Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M.), on Thursday last, issued his reserved decision in the case heard at the sitting of the Otahuhu Magistrate's Court on the 4th inst., in which Charles P. W. Longdill, a Government life insurance agent, was charged with having on Sept. 29th made seditious utterances in the commercial room at the Criterion Hotel, Otahuhu. It will be remembered that the incident concerned a conversation in which it was alleged that Longdill had suggested that King George was no better than a German, the contention of defendant being that his statements were in the form of an academic discussion, and were in no way to be interpreted as disloyal. The Magistrate, in dismissing the charge, pointed out that the circumstances, in bis opinion, could bear the innocent interpretation put on them by the defendant, who, by his family history and his record as a Government servant, could not &e----construed a disltyal subject, JRie defendant had his own peculiaj* and advanced views on matters, jnd he (.the Magistrate) was incited to think that he argued accordingly, and that the words he misunderstood by his hearts, should not be read as apart frouFthe arguments he was setting fortp. Especially having regard to tjpe fact that the war had now concluded, he (His Worship) was incline# to take a lenient view of the cape, and would no 1, convict. <1