BLENHEIM.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 4998, 19 January 1885, Page 2

BLENHEIM.

This day. Salvation Army Prosecution.

Lieut. Teasdale, and seven members of the Salvation Army, were charged this morning in the E.M.. Court, on the information of the local manager of the Bank of ;"New Zealand, with obstructing the Market-place by holding a meeting on the afternoon of Sunday, the 4th instant. A second information charged Baker, secretary of the Army, and a resident ia Wellington, though recently on a visit to Blenheim, with wantonly annoying informant by beating a big drum. The informant resides in the Markot-place, and meetings have been recently held in the centre of the thoroughfare opposite his house. The standard bearer stood in the centre, and the soldiers marched round and round him in a circle, with the accompaniment of a drum, cornet, and flutes. It is alleged that vehicles and pedestrians were prevented passing along the ordinary way through the Army collecting a crowd, variously estimated |at from 200 to 500. The case is exciting great interest, and a large number of witnesses have been summoned. Defendants marched down to the Court singing a hymn, and on entering, knelt down on the floor of the Court-house, and prayed for divine quid ance to all concerned. The defence is that no obstruction was caused. Baker being in Wellington, the big drum case will probably not be gone on with today.