DRINKING OF BEER IN HALL

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 12

DRINKING OF BEER IN HALL

Magistrate Dismisses

Charge ~ I elei-rapli I’l-ps,.- A.ssocialiou CHRISTCHURCH, March 17. Dance patrons drinking beer in the Peace Memorial Hall. North Beach, on the evening of March 6. while soft drinks and ice-cream were offered for sale on the premises did not constitute a breach of the Sale of Liquor Restriction Act, according to a reserved decision given by Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M. The ease was that, in which the police charged William Eugene Stafford Furby with permitting liquor to be consumed in a restaurant when licensed premises were required to be closed. Furb.v pleaded not guilty. The allegation of the prosecution that the selling of soft' drinks and icecreams brought Hie matter within the section broke entirely new ground, said the magistrate. The police alleged that the premises were u restaurant and that accordingly the sale of soft drinks and ice-creams coiistitued the' sale of food or refreshments of any kind. The defence claimed that this was not so as no general business of a restaurant was carried on, and that there was no supplying to the general public. In his opinion, added the magistrate, the point nt issue was whether there was supplying to the general public or only to such patrons of the dance who happened to attend the hall. He considered that there had been no sale to the general public either of food or refreshments as specified by the Sale of Liquor Restrictions Act, and lie had decided that the charge should be dismissed.