Ken Atherton
PINDARI HERB FARM
200 Norwich Drive Longford Tas. 7301 Australia
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The Registrar
Magistrates Court (Civil Division)
73 Charles St.
Launceston Tas 7250

Reference Action No. L40246 of 2002

28th of May 2002

Dear Sir

I respond to your letter of the 14th of May 2002 regarding "The Judgement of the Court" where you inform me, reference your action No. L40246 of 2002, of the "Process upon which Judgement was made," being "No proper defence disclosing any grounds of defence."

I inform you that I did attend the court sitting and did offer to the court a statement in regards to the claim by the Northern Midlands Council that I owe them a sum of money for the provision of services and for charges.

The magistrate of the day, Peter Wilson, did not accept my statement to the court and as your document purports, judged that it was not a proper defence.

I refer to your form 14 demanding that I attend the court, and bring to your attention that this form gives the purpose of the court attendance as a "directions hearing to narrow the issues in dispute and explore the possibility of settlement."

It is called a "conciliation conference." I am astonished and shocked that a conciliation meeting should be totally one sided with the "authority" stating categorically that I am unable to speak my words and to thereafter pass judgement against me.

By silencing my statement there was displayed a total disrespect towards myself as an individual.

I further believe that this judgement is in error because the magistrate has made the assumption that I had a case to answer. This is false, for in my opinion there was no case against me in the first instance.

Just because a claimant claims that money is owed is not proof of that claim. Under Australian law there is a basic principle of one being innocent until proven guilty, and by your implication and by the actions of the court, in the court's and your eyes I was/am already guilty of an offence, an offence that has not been proven.

Most importantly and above all else, God is supreme and God's ONE law and ONE Command need to be placed as the priority for us all in our daily lives.

God's ONE law states: As you sow so shall you reap, this law being immutable and non-voidable and also it applies to all those attending any Court of man.

God's ONE Command states : Be only be loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving and peaceful in our daily lives.

I endeavour to live my life in this way, and my statement to the court addresses and explains the actions against me in the light of God's Command and Law, and to imply that my statement to the court was not "proper," infers and places God's Law and Command as of lesser importance and beneath that of man's law.

I place before you the statement I offered to the court and ask that you examine it carefully. In this statement you will read that just because I live in an area, it does not imply that I 'owe' someone money for services for which I have neither asked for, nor accepted a tender.

I compassionately wish to draw your attention to the nature of your actions and their consequences. For, to place a forceful demand with the threat of liquidation upon another, is to invoke the negative aspect of God's ONE law upon those so doing, with the inevitable consequences for themselves that they ahead will suffer at the hands of others what they in ignorance do.

I ask that the action initiated against me be reconsidered in light of the above and that the denial of the basic right of "Not guilty until proven" under the Laws of Australian society be responded to, and I again state that as I have never tendered for the services of The Northern Midlands Council I thus owe them nought.

Yours sincerely

Ken Atherton

CC
Mr. Peter Patmore, MHA., Attorney General, 1 Civic Square Launceston.
Mr. Shott,  Chief Magistrate C/- Magistrate's Court Launceston.
Mr. Mike Collins, deputy registrar, C/- Magistrate's Court Launceston.
Ms. Maree Bricknell, staff, Councillors and Electors, Northern Midlands Council.