ICE CREAM ON SUNDAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3000, 18 February 1926, Page 3

ICE CREAM ON SUNDAY.

DELIVERY NOT WORK OF NECESSITY. Reserved judgment was given by Mr. E. Page, SAL, in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, concerning the case in which-the police took action against the manager of Frozen Products, Ltd., and two drivers of the firm, charging them with having plied their calling in view of the public on a Sunday by delivering ice cream from the factory.

One defence raised by defendants that ice cream came within the meaning of word “milk,” and therefore that its delivery was not prohibited on a Sunday. It was shown by the defence that ice cream contained 88A per cent, of milk and cream, 11 per cent, of sugar, and \ per cent, of flavouring. “It is a milk product consisting mainly of milk and cream,” said His Wor ship, “but I do not think it can fie embraced within the word ‘milk’ as used in the section.

Another defence raised was that the delivery of ice cream was a work of necessity, and as such, was exempt from the provisions of the Statute. The Magistrate said that evidence was called showing that the manufacture and sale of ice cream in New Zealand had reached substantial proportions. It was stated that the annual output amounted to two and a half million pounds weight, and represented a retail value of £500,000. The output contained a total of 254,000 pounds weight of butterfat. The defendant's factory, it was stated, turned out an average of 1100 pounds weight of ice cream daily. Their highest output for one day was 4000 pounds weight, “It is clear, therefore, that there is a substantial public demand for this product,” continued the Magistrate. “Counsel contends that as there is a large public demand for ice cream, and as the sale of it on Sunday for consumption on the premises is permitted, and as some retailers have no means of keeping the commodity fresh from one day to another, the delivery of supplies by a wholesaler should be held to be a work necessity. . . . The fact that there is a substantial public demand for ice cream on a Sunday docs not of itself make the delivery of it a work of necessity. The same argument might be used for the delivery, say, of chocolates or cigarettes.

“The keeping by the defendants of their machinery running on a Sunday, if it is requisite for the purpose of preserving their stocks of goods, woxdd probably be held to be a work of necessity, but in any view I have been able to take of the Statute I am unable to bold that the delivery of ice cream by the defendants on a Sunday is a work of necessity. If it is desirable that ice cream should be allowed to be delivered on a Sunday so as to ensure that retailers will get fresh supplies, the remedy is with the Legislature.” His .Worship treated the case as a test, and imposed a nominal penalty of £1 on one defendant —the manager —and convicted and diselmrged the other two. —Dominion.