OBSTRUCTING THE STREET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1940, Page 2

OBSTRUCTING THE STREET

INCIDENT AT WANGANUI.

DEFENDANT FINED £3. I ’ (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI. January 5. : Archibald Charles Barrington, aged 34, Dominion Secretary of the W.E?A„ resident of Wellington, who was arrested on Wednesday afternoon when giving a pacifist address at a street meeting in Wanganui, was charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday with having obstructed the police in the execution of their duty, and obstructing the street. He was ordered to come up for sentence if called on one charge and fined £3 on the other. Defendant conducted his own defence. He said that the streets could be put to other legitimate uses than for traffic. The police gave evidence that some of the crowd objected to the speaker’s remarks. He was ordered by a constable to move on but declined. A fellow pacifist then stood on the box and said: “This is the freedom which we are against.” A constable here interrupted and the pair debated for a few moments who would be speaker. The speaker was persuaded to move from the street and continue his address in Queen’s Park. After the arrest the Rev. J. F. Martin, of the Methodist Church, Aramoho, who previously had said to the crowd that he was proud to call these men his friends, took over the speaking. The crowd gave him a more generous hearing though there were still interjections. He was also told to move along by a plainclothes constable and complied. The Magistrate (Mr A. S. Coleman) ( said that the motives of the speakers had nothing to do with the court i which only had to decide if the gath- : ering of a crowd to hear speeches ob- 1 structed the street. He was satisfied ‘ that it did and that an accident might 1 have occurred.