STUDENT CASTIGATED

Evening Star, Issue 23695, 1 October 1940, Page 4

STUDENT CASTIGATED

YOUNG " BLOODS " IN CAR JUDGE'S HOMILY POLICE TO INVESTIGATE SALE OF LIQUOR [Per United Press Association - .] WELLINGTON, October 1. The opinion that the police should at once investigate the administration of the licensing laws in Stratford district was expressed in tho Supremo Court to-day by Mr Justice Ostler, when admitting James Ronald Hugh Morrieson (18), a student, to two years’ probation for failing to stop after an accident. His Honour was commenting on the fact that Morrieson had been able to obtain two dozen bottles of beer from a brewery on credit, and said the facts connected with the case disclosed a disgraceful state of affairs. Addressing Morrieson, ho said: Here are you, a boy only 18 years of age. You are not earning a penny, and are apparently living on tho charity of your mother, and yet you seem to be able to own a motor car. I don’t know whether you actually own it, but you have the use of it, and in these days of shortage of petrol you seem to have petrol to go to dances. That is not so bad, but here you, a boy of 18, are able to go to a brewery and buy two dozen bottles of beer, and not

even pay for it. They take this order and book if* to a hoy like you. It seems to me that there is something wrong with the administration of the licensing law in your part of the world, and it seems to me to be the duty of the police to find out how a boy is able to obtain two dozen bottles of beer on credit. I think the police ought at once to take a hand in the investigation of that, “That is beside the point. Having supplied yourself with this beer and picked np a carM of young “bloods’ of your own age, you go to a dance, drinking on the way. What right had you to do that? What would your mother think? You go to a dance and then drive off without lights. You feel a bump, and haven’t the moral courage to stop and see whether you have hit something. You don’t deserve much leniency at all. You are a university student, hoping to get a degree, and you ought to bo one of the fellows setting an example in the country instead of behaving like that. “ Solely on the ground of your youth. I propose to accept the recommendation of the probation officer and grant you probation.” The conditions laid down hy the judge include an order not to attend dances, not to be out after 8 p.m., and to pav the costs. £4 8s lid. The driving license was cancelled, with two years’ deprivation of it.