THE LICENSING ACT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4924, 11 January 1926, Page 2

THE LICENSING ACT.

A SUPPOSED FLAW.

SALE OF LIQUOR TO A BOARDER. Recently the police proceeded against the licensee of the Te Araroa ; Hotel for selling liquoi- during prohibited hours on a Sunday. The case was heard by Mr E. C- Levey, during the East Coast circuit, and judgment wa,s delivered at Gisborne recently. “The facts of the casie,” said the Magistrate, “are that a man came from a far-back,, farm and stayed at . the hotel on the Saturday .and ordered <>, quantity of liquor, for which he then paid, to be set aside for him to . take away when he\left the following day. ' On the Sunday the man packed up his swag, together with the liquor, and then went to secure his horseBut instead of going back tp the country immediately he became dissipated, and this is the cause of the prosecu-. tion.’’ The issue had been submitted by the police that the station hand. was not a lodger, and that the quantity of liquor supplied to him was excessive. However, he had no hesitation in saying .thathis opinion the man was still a boarder at the hotel . when he procured the liquor. As to the quantity of liquor supplied to him, the magistrate said .that this, raised , an interesting point in the Licensing Law. The police contended that under the present provisions of the law a man that stayed at the hotel) for a short time could be sold the whdle liquor stock of the hotel and no objection could be raised. If this was - s.o, the magistrate said, there was an important flaw in the- Licensing -Act , which requires to be immediately amended. However, a. licensee generality used his discretion in supplying liquor to persons staying at the hbtel or leaving it, and in the opinion of the magistrate it could not be said .. that two gallons of whisky is. an excessive supply to a man who Hives on . an outback station and visits an hotel once in six months or perhaps l once in a year, and the information would therefore be dismissed.