Very Obita Dicta

3.—The Curfew Case.

The curfew, once the remedy for fires, is now, it seems, the remedy for firebrands

Four men convicted at Auckland for breach of a city by-law have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment, to be followed by a period of probation, one of the conditions of which requires them not to be out from their homes after 7 o'clock at night.

They had participated in street meetings, and had made the absurd assumption that where the authorities provide no Hyde Park, orators may declaim upon the highways. This, of course, is absurd. Streets and footpaths are to enable people to go to work and to go home, not to go hostile.

The curfew has a distinguished history in early English annals, and the Magistrate was following a precedent hallowed by age-long antiquity; one might say it dated back well nigh to the days of barbarism. Used by William the Conueror to prevent nightly meetings, the curfew statute was repealed in the reign of Henry I., so great was the opposition that it aroused. And even while in vogue, it was never used as a badge of infamy. Many opportunities for innovation were thus left to the Magistrate at Auckland.

In a recent case at Palmerston North (R.v ANDERSON and Others), the judgment read:

"Persons in New Zealand are entitled to demonstrate and hold processions to publicly air their views and bring them before the authorities, so long as the meetings are orderly and peaceful. This is a cherished right of the British nation, and should not lightly be interfered with or curtailed."

To the same effect one may refer to Wakefield v. Governor Fitzroy (1884) (not reported), in which the Plaintiff in evidence declared :

"I feel bound to remind your Excellency that in all free countries, and especially in the British dominions, the liberty of expressing his own opinions is one of the most precious privileges of every, even the meanest, subject of his Sovereign."

Just how invaluable is the liberty conferred in practice by this principle of British Justice can be judged from the fact that only once in the history of the Dominion has any Court sought to enforce the restraining measures of the "curfew." Indeed, the sentence in the cases at Auckland only serves to emphasise in its full significance the truth of a recent statement of the London "Times":

"A gulf separates Germany from the western nations owing to the suppression of freedom of speech and thought. Germany has temporarily ceased to be a modern European country, and has reverted to medievality."

—Cato.