HOTEL-KEEPER FINED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 522, 27 November 1928, Page 16

HOTEL-KEEPER FINED

COMMERCE-TRAIN DINNER INCIDENT BAR OPEN AFTER HOURS WHANGAREI, Monday. The licensee of the Settlers’ Hotel, Whangarei, A. J. Dawson, was charged beforTMr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., to-day, with having his licensed premises open after hours. Evidence was given that the police noticed lights in the hotel about 8.40 p.m. on November 3. The Whangarei local bodies were entertaining the commerce train guests to dinner that evening in the hotel. When the police entered the bar, they found four men with empty glasses in front of them. The door was also open. Dawson said that two of the men were guests in the hotel, and were entitled to be there; the other two were tradesmen delivering goods- to him. The bar was open to allow the barmen to return the glasses and bottles used at the dinner. He further stated that no drink was supplied except to one of the lodgers. The magistrate, in inflicting a fine of £ 1 and costs, said he took into consideration the good name the hotel bore in the district, and the special circumstances under which the bar was open. He said that if the licensee had the bar open, it was at his own risk. Arising from the same incident were charges against Arnold Curtis and A. Fraser, of being on licensed premises after hours. Both were fined 10s each and costs.