NEW ZEALAND CIDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1941, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND CIDER

HEAVY ALCOHOLIC CONTENT RESTAURANT PROPRIETOR FINED NOT REGARDED AS SLY GROGGER (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The properties of New Zealand eider came in for comment in the Magistrates’ Court in the prosecution of Angelo Alexatos. a restaurant proprietor, pleading guilty to a charge of unlicensed sale of liquor. The prosecution stated the police bought cham-l pagne cider containing 24.5 proof spirit in the restaurant, paying 5s for a bottle. “We don't look upon defendant as a sly grogger in the ordinary common sense of the word. The case is brought more as a warning and the police are quite satisfied that he was selling this overproof cider actually believing it was ordinary cider,” said Sub-Inspec-tor Capp. Counsel for defendant said defendant did not know the cider contained such an alcoholic content. It was supplied to him as an ordinary beverage, along with other drinks. “New Zealand ciders are such that many people can make mistakes, thinking they are drinking an innocuous drink, and finding when they get outside that they have been drinking something very potent,” said the Magistrate, Mr J. H. Luxford. The case, he added, was very different from the ordinary sly grog offence. He imposed a fine of £2 and costs.