POLICE RIGHT TO RAID HOTELS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 35, 4 May 1927, Page 13

POL ICE RIGHT TO RAID HOTELS

HIGHER COURT IS TO DECIDE KNOTTY POINT (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-dav. The right of constables to enter licensed premises without suspicions that a breach of the Licensing Act is being committed will be presented for decision before the Full Court as a result of a judgment delivered to-day by the magistrate, Mr. Hewert, in the case where the licensee of Quinn's Post Hotel, Upper Hutt, was charged with failure to admit the police without unreasonable delay. The magistrate compared the present case with two Hnglish and two New Zealand cases, in one of the latter cases Mr. Justice Sim having said that if the point were raised again, the case would have to go to the Full Court.

Mr. Hewert decided that when the sergeant attempted to enter the premises there was no indication, inside or out, that a breach of the Act was being committed. The sergeant was, however, acting bona fids in the execution of his duty in trying to detect if a breach was being committed.

“It is obvious," said the magistrate, “that many offences against the Act go on without any indication from outside, and unless the police go in they cannot detect it."

Mr. McGrath, for the licensee, opposed a penalty being imposed, but the magistrate lined the defendant £l, and fixed security for appeal to the Full Court at five guineas, expressing satisfaction that the point was to be decided by a higher authority.