“HAVE ONE ON ME”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20111, 4 December 1939, Page 8

“HAVE ONE ON ME”

HEARD BY POLICE DRINKING AT DANCE FIRST GISBORNE FINE "Come and have one on me,” said within the hearing of a constable and traffic officer, Jed to Jack Wallace Higgs being convicted and fined £3, with costs 10s, by Mr. A. Coleman, S.M., in the Police Court this morning on a charge of being in control of liquor in the vicinity of a dance hall. Mr. Coleman said he regarded this | type of offence seriously because it i lacked the supervision that was associated with drinking in licensed houses. There were all sorts of possibilities associated with drinking at dances, he said, including the demoralisation of young girls and dangerous driving. As it was the first case of its kind in Gisborne he would make the fine smaller than it would have been otherwise. Senior-Sergeant J. F. H. Macnamara, who prosecuted, said that the defendant was seen by Constable G. Neale to [leave the Poho-o-Rawiri Hall on November 8 in company with throe other men and two girls. They went to a car about 80yds. away and Higgs came from the back of the car with a bottle of beer. He admitted that he had taken the beer to the dance for himself and his friends. Constable Neale said he was patrolling the road outside the hall in company with the Traffic Department’s inspector, Mr. R. Metcalfe, and at 11.20 p.m. the defendant passed the two officers, and was heard to say, “Come and have one on me.” The j members of the party at the car would i be from 21 to 25 years of age. j , | AUCKLAND PROSECUTIONS j The first prosecutions in Auckland .'brought under the recent legislation prohibiting liquor at dances were I heard in the Police Court on Friday Iby Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M. Several j men were charged with being found | in possession of liquor and drinking in the vicinity of dance halls. In j imposing fines the magistrate remarked that if the initial penalty did j not cure the offence, which was apparently viewed seriously, it would have to be increased until the maximum of £lO was reached.