LICENSEE FINED

Hokitika Guardian, 15 June 1933, Page 6

LICENSEE FINED

LIQUOR. SOLD ON ANZAC DAY. (Per United Pro-s Association.) TEMUKA, June 13. ..Whether or not Auz):.c Day .its a- Sunday withiii the meaning of the Licensing Act was a question which Mr C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., was called upon to giv.y his ruling at to-day’s sitting of the Temuka Magistrate’s Court. The Magistrate said, when convictin<>- Matthew Michael Coffey, licensee of the Empire Hotel, Temrika, on a charge of selling liquor when his premise,; were required, to be closed, that lie. had given a written,, decision that Anzac Lay was a Sunday for all pmAises of the Licensing Act. “A charge of servirig liquor illegally on Anzac Day is looked, upon as a serious one, and the courts are upholding that (sacred day,” lie said, “if I had not found mitigating cireumsta'nccis in tnis case- I would have inflicted the maximum fine for the offence. But I take into consideration the fact that there were Anzac men present 1 who pleaded first with the barman, and then with the licensee, for a drink.” Coffey was fined £5.

Arising’ out of the same case, George Watt, James Cecil Moore, Samuel Smith, Thomas Bropliy, Tamati W'::aka, Leslie Bendhow, and Michael MeGilJan were .-each, fined £2 with costs.