THE LIQUOR LAW.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 30 January 1909, Page 3

THE LIQUOR LAW.

A Magistrate’s Comments on

Police Methods.

Auckland, January 28

Judgment was given this afternoon by Mr Kettle, S.M., in the case of the police against William Henry Wrathall, licensee of the St. Helier’s Bay Hotel, for having on Sunday, December 20th last, sold liquor in contravention of the licensing laws, defendant being fined on each of the three convictions. His Worship, after giving his verdict, went on to say that he saw no reason to alter the opinion he expressed yesterday about the manner in which this case was brought. It was not a proper thing for anyone, especially constables and detectives, to tempt, or induce, or procure any person to commit any kind of offence with a view of prosecuting them if they fell. He thought that anyone who went to an hotel at an hour when the sale of liquor was illegal, and attempted to get the licensee to serve him, was in law equally guilty with the licensee who served him. In his Worship’s opinion it was a wrong thing for anyone, policeman or detective, to go into an hotel, and by offering money induce the licensee to commit a breach of the ActSection 54 of the Gaming Act indemnified the police in cases of this kind, and if necessary in this Act it should be in the Licensing Act. Until such a section was introduced into the Licensing Act, making it lawful for persons to act as these constables did, their conduct was, in his opinion, not only wrong, but it was contrary to law, and contrary to his Worship’s sense of British fair play.