KING COUNTRY GROG

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 343, 2 May 1928, Page 13

KING COUNTRY GROG

BREACHES OF ACT CASES AT TE KUITI (From Our Own Correspondent) TE KUITI, To-day. Fines totalling £IOO were imposed by Mr. R. M. Watson, S.M., in the Police Court to-day for various breaches of the Licensing Act in the King Country. Oliver Cunningham pleaded not Mmty to selling and keeping liquor within a proclaimed area. The evidence of the police showed that accused, who pleaded not guilty, had sold a bottle of whisky to a man named Macgregor on Easter Monday after the sports gathering at Piopio. Accused denied being the vendor of *the whisky. A fine of £SO, with costs £4 16s, was imposed and accused was warned that (if he came before the court again on la charge of “sly grogging” he would not be afforded the option of & fine, but would be sent to prison. Four charges of breaches of the Licensing Act were preferred against William John Clark, of Auckland. Victor Dwyer, of Auckland, was charged with assisting Clark in the commission of one of the offences alleged. Neither of the defendants appeared in court. The former wrote pleading guilty to three of the charges, but did not admit a charge of keeping liquor for sale. The evidence of the police was to the effect that Clark brought two cases and 21 bottles of whisky into Te Kuiti in a motor-car from Auckland on the evening of Anzac Day, without having made statements as required by the Act regarding the person for whom the liquor was intended. In a letter to the court Dwyer said that he had accompanied Clark to Te Kuiti and had come here for the purpose of obtaining work. There had been no intention on his part to engage in the sale of the liquor. After the evidence of the police had been heard a conviction on all four charges was entered against Clark and fines totalling £4O. with costs, were imposed. A conviction was entered against Dwyer and a fine of £lO with costs was imposed.