TROUBLE IN SAMOA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 99, 17 December 1931, Page 5

TROUBLE IN SAMOA

(Press Assn.-

nelson appeal APPLICATION MSMISSED BUT HEAVY FINES REDUCED APPEAL COURT JUDGMENT

— By Telegraph — Copyright).

WELLINGTON, Wednes. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in the case of Nelson and company versus the police, but the fines were reduced to £200 on the first charge and £10 on every other charge. The judgment of Justices Myers, Read and Adams was delivered by the Chief Justiee. His Honour held that except in those cases where such construction was impossible the word "person" in the regulations in question included the company in addition. Despite the admission by the solicitor general at the trial .that the company could not be guilty of mens rea this company was rightly convicted under the regulations, consequently the appeal should be dismissed and the conviction stand. In his opinion the penalties imposed by the Chief Justiee of Samoa were excessive, and the fines should he reduced to £200 on the first charge and £10 on every other charge. Mr. Justiee Ostler in a dissenting judgment, held that the appeal should be allowed, as once it was admitted that mens rea was a necessary ingredient of the charge then it was elear to him that the company could not he convicted. Judgment was entered in accordance with the decision of the majority of the Court. This was an appeal from the High Court of Western Samoa. In January an information was laid by the police in Samoa charging the company with 28 different breaches of the Samoan regulations of January, 1930, in that it had "participated in and aided, abetted and encouraged the activities of a seditious organisation, to wit the Mau, by receiving various sums of money on its behalf." The company was found guilty and convicted by Chief Justiee Luxford and fined the maximum penalty of £200 on each chai'ge, making the total fine £5600.