LIQUOR AT DANCE HALL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1942, Page 4

LIQUOR AT DANCE HALL

FINE OF £2O IMPOSED. (.Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 24. Recent visits to the Rio Club, Karangahape Road, by police officers and a Methodist missioner were described in the Magistrate’s Court when James Morton McGill was charged on six counts with permitting liquor to be taken into a dance hall. The Rev. Everill Orr said that wearing the uniform of an Army chaplain he spent an hour and a half on the premises. Cross-examined, he said he saw no misconduct or altercations, but it was i;ot the kind of behaviour to which he was accustomed. Appearing for McGill, who pleaded not guilty, Mr Schramm, while admitting that liquor was consumed on the premises, said the premises were not those of a dance hall. No orchestra was provided. Music was provided by guests putting sixpence in a machine. Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., said the premises were undoubtedly used as a dance hall or drinking hall, or both. On one charge he imposed the maximum fine of £2O, On the (remaining five charges he convicted and discharged McGill. “If this business continues,” Mr Luxford added, “it is the duty of the police to visit it each night and, if necessary, prosecute, so that by means of fines the business can be made unprofitable.” Two men, who pleaded guilty, were each fined £3 and costs for having liquor on the premises.