SOCIAL DEMOCRAT GAOLED

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 30, 6 February 1915, Page 7

SOCIAL DEMOCRAT GAOLED

POLITICAL CANDIDATE IN A ROW Pku Puess 'Association. Dunedin, February o. At the Police Court to-day, William Edward John Maguire, Social Democrat candidate for the Dunedin seat at the general election, was charged with threatening behaviour in Rattray street on January 5, whereby a breach oi the peace was occasioned. After this case had been heard, the -Magistrate instructed the police to lay an information against Johnathan Alexis O’Brien of using insulting words in a public place, with intent to orovoke a breach of the peace. It was alleged that O’Brien had been struck by Maguire after the latter had been provoked. Maguire was called as a principal witness to give n-idence against O’Brien, but declined L o do so, and after numerous opportunities given by the Magistrate to reconsider his decision, he was finally committed to prison for seven lays. The origin of the trouble was a discussion oyer the Bible-in-schoohs ques-

tion. In the afternoon O’Brien pleaded guilty, and was fined £2, in default one week’s imprisonment. The Magistrate sent for Maguire, and informed him that, as O’Brien had pleaded guilty, the necessity for his detention had disappeared, and the warrant for his commitment was cancelled, but Maguire was warned that defiance of the Court could not be tolerated. He was allowed seven days to pay the fine imposed in the morning.