SUNDAY TRADING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 18

SUNDAY TRADING

KAIAU PROSECUTIONS DEFENCE DISBELIEVED (From Our Own Correspondent) FUKEKOHE, To-day. As a sequel to a police raid on the New Brighton (Kaiau) Hotel on the afternoon of December 4, a number of persons were charged at the Pukekohe Court yesterday befpre Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M. Police evidence showed that seven men were found in the smoke-room, another dozen having filed out when the police entered. On the ledge between the room and the bar was a partially consumed bottle of liquor, two empty glasses, and the sum of 2s Od. The slide was alleged to have been closed as Sergeant J. Mclntyre inspected the bar. Casual groups of men were standing about the hotel yard, from which entrance could be gained to the bar, the door being ajar. A porter-barman denied that liquor had been supplied to any of the occupants of the room, and pointed out that they were only resting after dinner, the time being about 2.30 p.m. He accounted for the presence of the glasses by stating that they had been supplied to counsel, Mr. 'J. L. Stevens. One of the group of men, E. J. Manhire, emphatically denied that liquor had been consumed, although he observed the vessels on the slide. Counsel in evidence said he was a trustee of the estate, and was present in the course of his duties. Liquor had been given to his party by the licensee, and had been consumed on the verandah. He dismissed the police statement that liquor had been offered for sale, submitting that it could not be seen from the slide when open. The magistrate expressed doubt as to whether some 20 men would be resting in a room ten feet square after having partaken of lunch. In referring to the two glasses containing dregs of alcohol, he said that counsel’s party of five would require more than that number. In addition, the 2 s 6d had been tendered by someone apparently in payment for drink. The licensee, Esther Newham, was fined. £lO, and the barman, Robert Gray, convicted. The men found in the smoke-room, A. Bacon, G. Connell, C. Henry, E. W. Hollis, E. J. Manhire, J. Millington and A. Wylie, were each fined £l.