BAR OPEN FOR SALE

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 8

BAR OPEN FOR SALE

SERVICE TO LODGER BARMAID MUST BE LICENSED [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, February 21. lu the Magistrate’s Court a few weeks ago, C. H. Piper, licensee of the Clarendon Hotel, was charged with having allowed to servo in a bar a woman who is not a licensed barmaid. Mr H. P. Lawry, 'S.M., dismissed the information on the ground that the bar was not open for the sale of liquor within the meaning of section 36 of the Licensing Act, 1910. The Crown appealed against that decision, and Mr Justice Adams to-day allowed the appeal, and remitted the case to the magistrate, with an opinion that a. conviction should be recorded. His Honor said: “The first point was that the bar, having been opened for the sole purpose of procuring liquor for a lodger, it was not open for the sale of liquor within section 36 of the Act of 1910. In construing this section it is to be observed that it is the 1 bar ’ which is to be open, and not the licensed premises, as in sections 189 and 190. The'lest under similar -provisions of section 190 of the Act of 1908 a- to the opening of licensed premises is; Wore the premises open in the sense that people could got in from outside to have intoxicating liquor, or that they could get it supplied to them when outside? and the same test is to be applied here. In the circumstances I think the bar was so open. The lodger was. in’ fact, supplied with liquor from the bar. The transaction was a sale ol liquor, and the private bar was open for the purpose of flint transaction, just as a public bar is open during permitted hours for the sale of liquor, which may bo procured in exactly the same way by messenger and delivered in a private room. The fact that the lodger sent the porter to the woman with the order makes no difference. If the sale was lawful there was no reason why the lodger should not have gone into the bar to be served; but in any case, the bar was open for the sale.”