WARNING TO UNLICENSED LISTENERS

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 11, 30 September 1927, Page 5

WARNING TO UNLICENSED LISTENERS

. HEAVY PENALTIES TO BE ASKED FOR A beginning has been made by the Department in rounding up unlicensed listeners, which practice has become, it is believed, particularly common since the opening of 2YA. Heavy penalties were imposed on four offenders in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, last week, and intimation given that for the future the Department proposed to exercise its power and ask for the forfeiture of the set. "This offence," said Mr. J. M. Tudhope, Assistant. Crown Solicitor, in addressing the Court in respect of charges against four individuals, "is becoming altogether too prevalent, and from now on the Department intends to ask for heavy penalties. It is exceedingly difficult to detect people who have no licenses, because they are all over the place. Although listeners-in may not know it, we have the power to make them forfeit their sets no matter how expensive they may be. In future we intend asking the Court for permission to do this, as the offence is far too common. The trouble is that some people think thirty shillings is too much to pay for a crystal set license, so they decide to have free entertainment. They get just as good a reception, however, and are supposed to pay the same. If this sort of thing. continues, it wil seriously affect radio in New Zealand." Mr. Tudhope also said that in the present cases he did not ask that the offenders be made to forfeit their sets, but he did ask that they be fined an amount that would act as a warning to those who did not procure licenses. : One man was fined £3, while each of the others was fined £2 and costs. ~