SEQUEL TO CLIFF FATALITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3881, 8 December 1928, Page 2

SEQUEL TO CLIFF FATALITY.

YOUTHS AND LIQUOR. Christchurch, December 6. Four youths under the age of twenty-one went to the Heatheote Arms Hotel on the afternoon of Saturday, November 17, before setting out on a walk round the cliffs to Taylor’s Mistake, near Sumner. All had five drinks, and three arrived safely, but the fourth, William James Mowbray, left his companions, fell over the cliff, and was killed.

In the (Magistrate’s Court to-day the licensee of the hotel, Grace Moore, and the barman, Joseph Gestro, each faced three charges of serving liquor to persons under twenty-one years of age. All three youths admitted having the drinks, but were unable to remember which of the two defendants served them owing to the crowd in the bar and the rush of business. The ages of the youths were nineteen, eighteen, and seventeen.

The police stated that Moore had made an improvement in the conduct of the hotel during her tenancy.

The Magistrate said it was evident that the youths had been supplied either by the barman or the licensee, but in either event the licensee was responsible. Three pf the youths were mere boys, and the onus rested on the person supplying to ascertain the boys’ ages. In the rush some slight excuse might be found, but not in the law, which was always very hard. The matter was made more disastrous by the accident to young Mowbray, whose death was due to the amount of liquor he consumed. The licensee was fined £6 in all, with costs. The charges against the barmait were dismissed without prejudice.