Social Committee Of Ball In Court

Chronicle (Levin), 11 February 1948, Page 5

Social Committee Of Ball In Court

WELLINGTON, Feb. 11. "It may be as counsel for defendants urges, that if such a ball as the Radio Ball is not a private dance, excluded from the operation of section 59 of the Statutes Amendment Act of 1939, then it is almost impossible to conceive what dance can escape that section. That may be the position. If it calls for a remedy, that is a matter for legislature:" This was stated in a judgment delivered in the Magistrate's Court today convicting five members of the social committee of the National Broadcasting Service, whose employees held a dance in the Majestic Cabaret on September 23. Defendants had pleaded not guilty on January 31 to a charge that having the management of a dance in a dance hall, they permitted liquor to enter the hall. Alternate charges of permitting the consumption of liquor in the hall were withdrawn by the police. A similar charge against Frederick Carr, managing-director of New Zealand Attractions, Ltd., owners of the cabaret, was dismissed. Mr. A. M. Goulding, S.M., in his judgment, eaid that as each of the other five defendants honestly believed he was within his legal rights, he .would impose a penalty of £3 on oue defendant and the others would be convicted and ordered to pay costs only. The judgment added that there was lio suggestion whatever that the Radio Ball had been conducted in anything but an orderly and proper manner. ,