MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8387, 23 March 1907, Page 7

MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

MASTERTON—FRIDAY. (Before Mr W. P. James, S.M.) Two charges under the Licensing Act were heard. Josephine Tansey, a barmaid at the Central Hotel, was charged with having supplied liquor t3 a man who was in a state of intoxication. Frederick S. Cooper, licensee of the hotel, was charged with having sold liquor to the same person. Both defendants pleaded guilty, and were represented by Mr C. A. Pow,,v. nail. ■> Mr Pownall stated that the licensee was away from the hotel at the time of the breach. He contended that it was a difficult matter for a barmaid to distinguish between a drunk man and a sober man when she was busily engaged in serving customers. The man was leaning against the counter when she served him, and he appeared to her to be sober. The Magistrate commented on the ■ action of the police in'taking steps to prosecute the right person in the case. He added that a barmaid had no right to jeopardise her employer's interests by breaches of the kind under notice, and it was no excuse in law to say that the defendant had no knowledge of the condition of the person she was servings The defendant barmaid would be fined £3, with 9s costs, and the licensee £1 and 7s costs. The license was not endorsed. Edward Donovan, against whom there were a numbre of previous convictions, was sentenced to two months' imprisonment with hard labour for having stolen a bottle of whisky valued at 6s, the property of A. C. Scrimgeour, proprietor of the Club Hotel. Charges of cruelty to dumb animals against Archibald Marby and Archi- ' bald Montgomery were further adjourned until March 26tb.