LETTER TO MAGISTRATE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 9 October 1933, Page 6

LETTER TO MAGISTRATE.

CONVERSION OF CARS. REPLY BY UNION PRESIDENT. Per Press Association AUCKLAND, Oct. 9. A reply to statements made by Mr W. H. Bundle. S.M., in Dunedin on Friday regarding a circular'dealing with penalties imposed for car conversions was made by the president of the North Island Motor Union, Mr W. O’Callaghan. Mr O’Callaglian stated emphatically that no criticism of the administration of the law, past, present or future, was intended or implied, and he was at a loss to account for Mr Bundle’s displeasure at receiving a memorandum stating tho motorists’ views on the necessity for some better statutory protection for their property. It was explained in the last paragraph that the memorandum was sent out because, while car conversions were becoming commoner every day, the Justice Department was uc—mined to block any legislation to increase the penalty, and he concluded with a request for assistance from his fellow citizens in getting the law amended. That request surely could not he construed as reflecting on the way the present, or futile, law was administered. It did not deal with sentences imposed, but only with the maximum penalty that might be imposed, which was a very different matter and one upon which he felt that any citizen was entitled to express an opinion, even to a Magistrate. During a sitting of the Dunedin Court on Friday, the Magistrate, Mr H. \V. Bundle, made some strong comment on u letter which he had received dealing with sentences for conversion of cars. His Worship stated that he had received from the North Island Motor Union a circular letter purporting to have been sent by the president and secretary. “It is most improper that such a circular should havo been sent to a Magistrate engaged in the administration of justice,” said Mr Bundle.