SERIOUS BREACHES OF MEAT RATIONING

Chronicle (Levin), 28 August 1946, Page 5

SERIOUS BREACHES OF MEAT RATIONING

-Press Association

By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, August 2 1. Fines totalling £302 10s in respeet ot ten charges involving breaches of tlie Meat Rationiiig Regulatious were nnposed on C. I. Villars, nianager oi Barber and Oq., butchers, Wellington, by Mr. H. J. Thompson, SA1., in -a roserved judgment in the Magistrate s Court today. Several other deiendants were also lined. Villars, who accepted responsibility for offences relating to Barber and Co., was lined £100 for overstating quantities of meat snpplied to the Dominion Monarcli, £75 in respeet of the Theimstocles, £50 in respeet of the Akaroa, £25 in respeet of the Karamea, £25 in respeet of Georges Ltd. (Empire Cafe),r £7 10s in respeet of the Wellington Club, and £5 on each of four charges 111 respeet of Hill Bros. Ltd. Georges Ltd. (Empire Cafe) were fined £75 for aequiring meat in excess of their permit. B. A. Hingle, manager of the Wellington Club, was lined £7 10s on a similar charge. Hill Bros. L'td. were fined £5 on each of four similar charges. At the hearing on August 16, Mr. tShorland, who appeared for Villars, raised a point of law that the inforinations were out of tirrte and could not therefore he procpeded with. The Magistrate," glVing his resevved judgment, ruled that Amendment No. 3 to the Supply Control Emergency Regulations, 19.39, exernpted informations fi'dm' the'npefation of Ctause 50 of tlie Justice of the Peace Aet, requiring that inforinations must be Jaid, witliin six months l'rom tlie commission of the alleged offence. The Magistrate said he viewed the charges agaiust defendanls as very serious. It was his duty to impose heavy penalties. The meat involved m the charges amounted to sometliing iike 20 tons — a week's ration for about 17,600 people in New Zealand and many more in England.