The Law: A Puzzle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 15, 9 April 1903, Page 18

The Law: A Puzzle

A recent decision of the Christchurch Magistrate's Court has served to give a point to the ' legal pillory ' columns in London 'Truth,' and to confirm mere laymen in the common idea tha.t the law is a Chinese puzzle where it is not ' a hass.' Hall and Co., of Christchurch, set a gramophone going in full blast inside their business premises for three successive Saturday nights. The gramophone performances collected a crowd. So did the Salvation Army band a few paces round the corner, in the open street. We have no sympathy with any unnecessary police interference with the proceedings of the Army. In the present instance, the police did not molest the Salvationist meeting ; and they were apparently too tired to order the crowd in front of Hall and Go's premises to move on. So they qiuietly haled Hall and Co. before the Bench and had them fined 40s for ' causing persons to congregate in a public place, and thereby obstructing the traffic ' ' And now people in and out of Christchurch are wondering whether a New Zealand merchant is liable to be fined or placed under lock and key if a crowd assembles to see his grand display of ' killing ' winter fashions, or to gaze at the two-headed calf in his shop window Verily, the law is a ticklish piece of machinery : you never can tell where 'tis loaded. It was, we believe, some such freak legal decision as the Christchurch one that made Artemus Ward exclaim : ' I've been puzzled afore several times, but never so severally as now.'