WOMAN FINED £75 FOR SLY GROGGING

Grey River Argus, 5 October 1948, Page 7

WOMAN FINED £75 FOR SLY GROGGING

WELLINGTON, Oct. 4.

A raid made on the Mansions private hotel, Wellington, on the night of August 4, in which beer and wine was confiscated was described by the police, prosecuting Clara Hallam, proprietress, on sly grogging charges in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington.

She pleaded not guilty and was convicted and fined a total of £75, with costs £1 14s. There were two charges of selling liquor and one of keeping liquor for sale while being unlicensed to do so. Sub-Inspector W. J. K. Brown prosecuted.

Many complaints had been received of unlawful sales of liquor from the Mansions, said Senior Sergeant M. E. Parker, Mt. Cook, giving evidence. As a result a search warrant was obtained and he and four other policemen raided the hotel on the night of August 4. > “It was 7.30 p.m. When the front door was opened, we said we were going to search the building. The man tried to close us out,” but we forced our way in,” he said. “Mrs Hallam appeared from the back of the building then disappeared again. I found her in an outhouse at the back of the. section.”

The search disclosed four sugar’ bags each with IS bottles of beer and one with eight. In Mrs Hallam’s own room they found a carton of wine. In various rooms were found a total of 41 empty beer bottles and six empty wine bottles. “The dining room was occupied by seven men, five of them Indians and four women. All were under the influence of liquor and there were empty bottles lying about,” said Mr Parker.

One complaint about sly grogging, said the senior-sergeant, had come from an elderly man who had been invited to The Mansions by a European woman who was lodging there with her husband. He had gone to her room, given her money and she had gone out to return shortly with beer. Later he gave her more money, and she went away again but did not return.

Her husband came in and told him to get out. He left and claimed he had been “beaten” for 18s. Evidence was given by a young man who said h» had been at The Mansions on two occasions and had seen beer being bought from Hallam for 3s a bottle.

Mr P. C. P. McGavin, defending Hallam, called evidence to show that the beer and wine belonged to lodgers and that she was storing it for them.

“I am not prepared to believe the story,” said Mr McLachlan, S.M. He was satisfied that sly grogging was going on, he said. He fined Hallam £25 on each of the three charges. She had been convicted previously for sly grogging, it was stated.