THE GAMING ACT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10177, 1 March 1911, Page 3

THE GAMING ACT.

AN ALLEGED BREACH. ; A CHARGE DISMISSED. [By Telegraph — Press Association,] WANGANUI, Last Night. Mr Kerr, S.M., delivered judgment this morning in a case >in which Farreir was charged with keeping a betting'house in p. certain stable. ' The police evidence showed tlit defendant was known to the police by repute as a bookmaker, arid on several occasions when' races were being run in different parts of the Dominion, defendant and a number of men entered a room in the stables used as an office and bedroom. ' ' On the afternoon of the 22nd February defendant was arrested in the office, when-he was writing in a small book which the magistrate said , he was satisfied contained particulars of bets made by defendant on totalisator odds, with persons whose real names were concealed under pseudonyms. Mr Hivtchison, for defendant, raised the point that defendant was not affected by the sections of the Act under which the information "was .laid, and that there was no evidence that | Fan-ell had the use' of the office; and only that people came and went, and that the premises were used as a livery stable. Counsel held it would have to be proved that defendant was a sort of tenant of the owner of the property. The Magistrate" upheld the contention, and said there was no evidence tha-e the owner or occupier of the stable bad any knowledge of what defendant was' doing, or that he permitted defendant the use of the office or bedroom for the purpose of betting. He dismissed the case.