WRONG LABEL ON BOTTLE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1930, Page 3

WRONG LABEL ON BOTTLE

PUBLICAN FINED £2O

WELLINGTON, July 10

Reserved judgement was given by Mr E. Page, S.M., to-day in the eases m which Percy Hayward, licensee of the Foresters Arms Hotel, and J. J. Forth, licensee .of the Western Park Hotel, were each charged with failing to destroy a label on a whisky bottle when* using tile- bottle for the purpose of bottling liquor for sale.

The evidence showed that an officer under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act went to each of the hotels and a sample from a bottle marked “Dewar’s Old Liqueur Whisky’.’ and analysed it. The contents in the case of Hayward proved not to be Dewar’s, for whereas genuine Dewar’s whisky contains 80 per, cent of proof spirit, the sample taken by tbe Inspector contained but 69 per cent., and there was also a substantial variance in the other ingredients. ■ •

'After referring at, length to tlie.evi-, dencc, the .Magistrate said lie; thought the act- of re-using, a pottle, without; destroying the label was absolutely prohibited by the statute,, and : the defendant became liable, whether the act was done by himself or by. one of his servants or agents. “The bottle having been found in use on the bar shelves. I think that in the absence of an adequate explanation T must draw the inference that the wrongful act was done by one or other of them,” concluded Mr Page. The defendant was convicted and fined £2O, the minimum penalty. Dealing with the case against Firth, the Magistrate said that the analyst wns^not able to> say that the contents of the bottle purchased there were not Dewar’s, hut stated that it was not of the vat number which the marking on the inner side of the label would indicate, it to be. “I have, some doubt on the facts,” said Mr Page, “whether in this case a wrongful use has been made of this bottle, and I propose to dismiss the charge.”