A LODGER'S "SHCUT."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 28, 2 June 1915, Page 7

A LODGER'S "SHCUT."

DRINKING AFTER HOURS. A person's liability in going into a hotel after closing hours and then having a drink was questioned in the Feilding Court, when a man named Beard was charged with being on licensed premises at Apiti after closing ! hours. According to the evidence, the I accused went into the hotel after clos- ! ing time to receive payment of an account. His debtor was a lodger, "and the question is," said Mr Poynton, I S.M., "can a lodger treat a friend who is not a lodger? The law appeared | to be this : 'lf the lodger takes a man 1 into a hotel for the purpose of giving him a drink, the guest is improperly in the hotel; but if for any other pur- | pose, as "to see him about a dog," etc., and after he is in decides to treat him, he is entitled to do so, and the i inconvenient advent of the police Intakes no difference.' " The ease was ; therefore dismissed. 1 After giving judgment his Worship suggested that the licensing law should be amended. A lodger, he said, could I not take a friend in after 10 p.m. to have a drink only, but provided he took him in for some other purpose lie could treat him to a drink. Mr Poynton's opinion was that from (5 a.m. to 10 p.m. was quite sufficient length of time for anyone to get a drink, either guest or lodger, and no one should be allowed to have drink outside those hours.