THE RIGHT TO TREAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1920, Page 5

THE RIGHT TO TREAT.

. i LICENSING LAW POINT. LODGER AND HI'S FRIENDS. By Telesrash. —Press, Association. Christehiirch, Last Night. A little known point in the licensing law was raised with success at Lyttelton to-day, when the licensee of the Empire Hotel was charged with having sold liquor during prohibited hours and aiso with having exposed liquor for sale during such hours. Tha police evidence was to the effect that three men were found in the commercial room of the hotel before 9 a.m. with liquor in front of them, and two were boarders and one was not. Counsel for defendant said that a judgment given on appeal by the late Mr. Justice Richmond in a similar case in 1895 still stood as a correct interpretation of the law on the point. The judgment said: "A sale of liquor "by a licensed inn-keeper on a Sunday to a lodger for. consumption by himself' and others whom he lnfli met in the vicinity of a bar, and invited to have a drink with him, the lodger calling for the drinks and paying for them, is a sale to the lodger within the meaning of section 156 of the Licensing Act, ISSI, and lawful under that Act. The mere exposure of liquor in a bar so as to be visible to others, whilst drink lawfully sold to a lodger is being handed out from the bar, does not constitute an exposure for sale to such others, or an exposure for sale generally within the meaning of section 155 of the Act." The Magistrate (Mr. S. E. McCarthy) accepted the decision quoted. It used to he law, he said, that a lodger could only be supplied for his own consumption. It was now intended to cover a sale to a lodger for the entertainment of his quests. The fact that the War ', Regulations Act made shouting illegal did not affect the point in the Licensing Act. ; 'The information was dismissed.