HARD ON SOLDIERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 May 1942, Page 3

HARD ON SOLDIERS

LIQUOR LICENSING LAWS.

COMMENT IN BLENHEIM COURT.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, May 20. An idea of the impracticability of the present licensing laws now that the country is on a war footing was given in the Magistrates’ Court when a case was dealt with involving a hotelkeeper and a number of soldiers found after hours on licensed premises. . “I can see the difficulty when their military training prevents these men from getting drink in the hours laid down by the Act,” remarked the magistrate, Mr Maunsell. “That is the unfortunate part of the whole thing. It is pretty hard,” agreed Senior-Sergeant Smyth. “Some of these men speak pretty roughly about it at times. They say that when they are not being followed about by a bugler they are being followed about by the police. These men should have some consideration. They are very well conducted on the whole and are a credit to the uniform.” Mr Maunsell said he was in the same difficulty as the police. “I can’t wink an eye at it, as it is against the law,” he explained. A Territorial officer in Court agreed that the soldiers had not the opportunity of getting in for a drink during training hours. In addition, all they handled of their pay was half a crown Mr"Maunsell: “I can’t help it. It is where the law stands.” Subsequently the magistrate said he would reduce several fines of 10s and costs he had already imposed on soldiers found on hotel premises to 5s and costs.