MAN WITH LIQUOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 14

MAN WITH LIQUOR

BENEFIT OF DOUBT

"CASE NEAR BORDERLINE"

The circumstances in which a man was seen leaving the Trentham Hotel |at night with liquor were related in the Upper Hutt Court yesterday, when Charles Frederick Adamson was charged with being on licensed premises after hours, Martin James Curran was charged that being a person other than the .licensee he supplied liquor after hours, and Nellie Gordon, the licensee of the hotel, was charged with selling liquor after hours and withj opening the premises for the sale of liquor at a time when they were required to be closed. Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., was on the Bench. Mr. J. A. Scott entered a plea of not guilty on all charges. Constable F. Williams said that about 10.30 p.m. on April 24 he saw a motorcar parked in Ward Street, which runs past the Trentham Hotel. He spoke to two men in the car and they said they had come from Carterton. He saw Adamson coming out of a back entrance. When asked what he had been doing there the defendant said he was a barmaii and had been to see the regular barman. He had a bottle of port wine on him. He said he had obtained it earliei in the day and had come from a dance for it. He wanted to take it back to the dance. Witness took Adamson round to the back door and saw Curran.. who admitted supplying the liquor. Mrs. Gordon said she thought it. was all right, as Adamson worked there. Adamson lived in Ward Street and was regularly employed elsewhere. Mr. Scott submitted that there was no offence disclosed, as Adamson was a servant in the hotel. i

Mr. Lawry: There is nothing to suggest that he was a. servant at the time. Mr. Scott: I submit he need not be a servant on the premises. A man can be a servant to two masters.

Mr. Scott said the evidence would be that Mrs. Gordon had never been before a Magistrate. She had helped Adamson when he was unemployed and he was accustomed to help in the hotel and the bar. Earlier in the day Mrs. Gordon had given him a bottle of port wine and he had left it at the hotel. He had been helping there that day. He had been- at a dance and wanted the wine for his wife. Curran was taking stock at the time. Adamson gave evidence along these lines, and said that although he was now in regular employment he assisted at the hotel in his spare time.

Curran said that no money passed between them. Adamson went out the back door so as not to attract attention in case anyone was about who wanted liquor.

Mr. Lawry said the case was very near the borderline. The prosecution was caused by the suspicious circumstances of Adamson's coming out the back entrance. Curran had given an explanation that was quite feasible. He would give the defendants the benefit of the doubt and treat Adamson as a servant. The police -were quite justified in taking the proceedings, as Adamson's conduct was suspicious, to say the least. The explanation given at the time was not explicit. The charges would be dismissed.