SUBVERSION CHARGE

Southland Times, Issue 24873, 13 October 1942, Page 5

SUBVERSION CHARGE

Jury Fails To Agree (P.A.) PALMERSTON NORTH, October 12. At the trial of Charles Gough, secretary of the Wellington branch of the Dairy Factory Workers* Union, who is alleged to have made subversive statements at the Onia Downs dairy factory on February 24, the jury disagreed. An application for a new trial was granted. Crown witnesses stated that Gough called them slaves for working for £4/10/- a week when their “cobbers’* in Wellington got £lO for half the work they did. He also told them that if they liked to strike for one day they would wield more power than the watersiders, coalminers or freezing workers. The accused, on the other hand, denied using the word strike and said the allegations were a gross misrepresentation of the facts. However, he had told them there must come a show-down, by which he meant any stand the workers might take after the war. In an address to the jury Mr W. P. Rollings, counsel for the accused, suggested that Gough’s defence had been prejudiced by the long delay in bringing the case to Court. Months had elapsed after the completion of police inquiries. Meanwhile, memories failed and men had left the factory. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, also commented on the delay, saying it should not have happened. A police witness said the Attorney-General’s notice to the prosecution was received only two or three days before the lapse of the six months* time limit.