SUNDAY TRADING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2412, 29 January 1909, Page 5

SUNDAY TRADING.

PUBLICAN CONVICTED AND POLICE CONDEMN HD.

Pit ess Association.] AUCKLAND, Jan. 28. Judgment was given this afternoon by Mr. Kettle, SiM., in the case of the police 'against William _Henry Wrathall, licensee of the -St. Helier’s Bay hotel, for having, on Sunday, the 20th .December last, sold liquor in contravention >of the licensing jaw. Defendant having been lined £ls on each of the three eonvietions, Mis Worship, after .giving his decision, went on to say that ho saw no reason to alter the opinion he expressed yesterday .about the. manner in which this ease -was got up. It was not -a proper thing for .anyone, especially constables and 'detectives, to entice or induce or procure any person to commit any kind of .offence, with a view of prosecuting them if they fell. Ho thought that anyone who went to an hotel .at an hour when the sale of liquor was illegal .and attempted to get the licensee to -serve him was in law equally guilty with the licensee who served him. In bis Od s Aorsfliip’s) opinion, it -was as \ mg a thing for anyone, policeman or detective, to go .into ail h tel and by offering money induce the nesmee to commit a .breach of Lho act. _ oc-. r ’tioii 54: of the Gaming Act liiuomuiii-.-d the police, in cases of Hus knuß and if necessary in this Act. it shouuil he in the Licensing Act. Until -wuch « section avas introduced into the iiK( U sing Act, making it lawful for in-1 sonto act as these constables aid, thou conduct was,, in bis opinion, noi; only wrong, hut it was contrary to taw and contrary to bis (His AWHups) sense of British ' faarpiay.