ILLEGALLY ON PREMISES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5160, 3 August 1927, Page 2

ILLEGALLY ON PREMISES.

CONVICTIONS RECORDED. VISIT TO LOCAL HOTEL. John McKenzie, Tony King, and Harry Wilson were, charged before, Mr F. W. Platts, S.M., at. the) Paeroa. Magistrate’s Court on Monday last with being in the Royal Mail Hotel on July 11 after hours. Mr C. N. O’Neill .appeared for the defendants. Senior-Sergeant D. A. Maclean detailed the 1 visit paid to the hotel at 9.15 on the night of July 11, when he found the defendants standing in a passage. When defendants saw the police approaching they moved into a bedroom. The barman at the hotel was in thei room, and as the police walked in he was in the act of stowing a bottle of beer under a mattress; On being questioned Wilson said that he had gone into the hotel to see .a man named Harder, and the other two said they had been invited in to see the barman. Wilson was considerably under the influence of liquor. It was found that Harder was, i'll the sitting-room, and when beickpned to come out he was asked by Wilson to s.ay that he had been invited to meet him. At first Harder denied .this, but later said : “Uh, yes, I told you to come at 8 p.m., but it is. now 9.15 p.m.”

Corroborative evidence was given by Constable J. McClinchy. Mr O’Neill said that the police had not shown that the defendants wdre found unlawfully on licensed premises, and neither was there any sign of liquor 'having been partaken of.

H. Wilson, quarry worker, Paeroa, said that he and the two other defendants had gone to the hotel to interview a man named Harder with reference to taking a metal stripping contract from Mr Julian. The reason why he was late for his appointment was because he had been playing billiards.

To the police witness said .that he was not drunk, but may have had five or six beers.

Tony King, quarry worker, Paeroa, stated that he had gone) to the hotel with Wilson to see Harder about a contract. They did not have z a drink, and did not want one. Wilson was quite sober.

John McKenzie, quarry worker. Paeroa, said that he had known Wilson for years. On the night in question he saw Wilson play a couple of games of billiards, after which he went with Wilson and King to the hotel to have a chat with Jack Goonan while his two friends went to see Harder about a job.

Th© magistrate said that he had difficulty in believing that all Wilson had said was- true, and even if it was it did not account for the other two defendants. They had failed to prove to his satisfaction that .they were on the hotel premises for a. lawful purpose.

In convicting and fining the defendants £2 each and costs the magistrate remarked that the fine was large because defendants were the type of men who “told licensees to break the law.” If such men did not appear on the premises there would be far less: breaches committed.