SEDITIOUS SPEECHES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 272, 22 April 1914, Page 5

SEDITIOUS SPEECHES.

ECHO OF THE RECENT STRIKE.

HENRY HOLLAND'S CONVICTIONS

CONFIRMED.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The Court of Appeal delivered its reserved decision in the Crown ease, Rex v. Henry Holland, this afternoon. The Court affirmed the convictions iu both indictments. With regard to the speech, of November 2, 1913, the Court held that it was open to the jury to conclude that the accused recommended the strikers ,to use violence for the purpose of securing their ends, and that he suggested also that the police in that event should refuse to do their duty, and should take the side of the strikers; and that the navals, if ordered to lire on the strikers, should refuse to obey their orders; and that the case came within, the- limits of subsection 1 of clause D of section IIS of the Crimes Act,

Dealing with the question of whether the conviction for the speech of October 2(1, 1913, should stand, the Court held that, the plea of a previous acquittal could not he established, as accused could not bring himself within section 403 of the Crimes Act, 1908, which set out the only cases in which a plea of -previous acquittal can now be established. The Court also added that an accused who desires to plead tluvplca of previous acquittal, or a previous conviction, may lose his right to do so iby pleading not guilty when arraigned on an indictment.