IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 16, 20 January 1903, Page 2

IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.

A judgment of s>me importance in connection wich ol I age pousions was delivered at Christohurch the other diy. It was n case in wh : oh an applicant fo- an old age pension nam j d Sh»w was charged with falsely representing thhis wife had no means. The Magistrate (Mr Bishop) in giving judgment said that he must uphold the point taken by the defence, that knowledge of the existence of the wife's property mus 1 -, be established agairst the ai'ouaad, Apirt from the circumstance of this caa-, the onm w«s on the protection to prove that there had baen a wilful misstatement of the facts, or wilfully keeping secret the details in regard to tbe wife's p-oprty. The result of the decision would inevitably hold open the do.r to fraud in such o*B9B, That being so, t,ftsr consul'a tion with Mr Beetham, they had d«oHe4, in all c>s?s where both husband I and wife were producible, bo h must be | produced, and givo evidence, and be categorically examined as to their i means, and th ir answers placed on recoid. If falsa answers were then given the parties would be liable to prosecution for psr jury, in addition to proceeding* being tiken againet them under the Old Age Pensions Ac*. This was the logical outcome of this prosecution. Bolh cases ag-unsl Shaw were dismissed,