THE LICENSING ACT.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14978, 21 May 1914, Page 2

THE LICENSING ACT.

IXVEHCARCJILL-S "TEMPERANCE BARS." INFORMATION DISMISSED.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) IXVKRCAROILL, May 20. To-day, Mr Hutchison. S.M., delivered judgment in tiie case of Bingiiain and Colemsti. It will bo remembered that the police, actiufi upon an opinion expressed by the Crown Law Office, proceeded against W. V. Coleman under Section 37 of the Licensing Act. • The information charged the defendant with keeping and using the Club Hotel .is a piiice of resort for the consumption of liquor. The text of his Worship's judgment is as follows: — "Tho information charges the defendant that between March 7th, 1914, and May 2nd, 1914, he, being manager of the premises known as the Ciiib Hotel, did keep such - premises as a place of resort for the consumption of intoxicating liquor. The facto are undisputed. Defendant is the landlord of the Club Hotel in Invercargill, which is a.No-license district under the Liccn\sing Acts. One of .the rooms or the lotol is fitted up asaso-calied 'temperince bar,' where non-alcoholic liquors iro obtainable. This bar is the resort of many persons who bring with them alcoholic liquor which they consume 'hero. The defendant supplies the cus--1 tomers with glasses and soda-water md such-tike beverages, and charges bhem 3d for the use of the glass, and 3d for eaqh bottle of soda-water or other similar beverage supplied. "Tho information is laid under Section 37 of the Licensing Amendment •Vet, 1910. That section enacts that: (1) no building, room, or other promises in any No-license district shall bo kept or used as a place of resort for the consumption of intoxicating liquor on , these premises; (2) if any premises iro kept or used in broach of this section as a place of resort for tne consumption of liquor, the occupier of the same, and every person having or taking part in'-the care, management, or control of the same, are severally liable to a fine not exceeding £20 for every clay on which tho premises are kept or used. • "The evidence sufficiently shows that this bar, which is part of defendant's premises, is a resort of numbers of persons whose "main object, in . many instances, at all events," may. be said without breach of charity to bo the consumption of alcoholic liquors which they bring with them. Further, the evidence shows that this use of the bar :is not occasional but frequent. . "The question which the present prosecution raises is whether this constitutes in tho defendant an offence against Section,3". I am of opinion that it does not. If Section 37 could bo read as making- the permitting a place to be used as a resort for the consump- )' fcion of intoxicating liquor the offence, I. agree that upon the evidence, defendant must have been convicted. But the section doea not read so, and cannot bo so construed. "The distinction which the Licensing Act draws between that* class of offences which consists in permitting certain things, and that other class of offences which ■ consists in doing certain things is well established, and there is no ground for confounding one with the other. Here the thing prohibited is keeping premises for a certain purpose: It is. I think, tho purpose lor which the defendant keeps the bar, and not the purpose which other people may have in comine there, which ,is the essential point. Now it is not only ,not suggested that the'defendant keeps this bar for the purpose of the consumption of intoxicants there, but such a view is expressly repudiated by the prosecution. . I am therefore, of oninion that the information must beaismissed."