SLY GROGGING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1942, Page 2

SLY GROGGING

CASE BEFORE MASTERTON COURT DALMATIAN HEAVILY FINED. INTERPRETER CENSURED BY MAGISTRATE. A Dalmatian, Mate Mlikota, of 111 Chapel Street, Masterton, was fined £25 and 10s costs in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon when he appeared before Mr H. P. Lawry. S.M., on a charge of having kept beer and wine for sale in a no-licence district. Mr Lawry dismissed a further charge relating to the sale of beer and wine in a no-license district. The hearing occupied several hours, and the services of an interpreter, Mate Nolan, were required. At one stage of the proceedings, Mr Lawry told Nolan that he was breaking his oath as an interpreter, and was not there to defend the defendant, but was purely an agent of the Court. When Nolan repled that he was sorry, Mr Lawry said he ought to be, and if he continued in the way he was behaving he would not allow the interpreter to act. The floor space in front of the jury box was occupied with an array of crates of empty beer bottles, full bottles of beer and wine, two “demijohns,” and a five-gallon keg, which constituted the police exhibits. Mr J. Macfarlane Laing, who- appeared for Mlikota. entered pleas of not guilty to both charges. Senior-Sergeant C. Murphy said that Mlikota was a Dalmatian, 69 years of age, and had been in New Zealand for 14 years. As a result of complaints concerning a boarding house next to the Masonic Hall, where Mlikota resided, the police kept a watch. Soldiers had been seen entering and leaving the premises in such numbers as to indicate sly grogging on an extensive scale. The Court records showed that 52 gallons of beer and ten gallons of wine had been delivered to the house in three weeks. Twenty-four gallons of beer were in Mlikota’s name. The place was raided on November 26, when the accused admitted the offence and said he was charging 2s a bottle for beer and 6s a bottle for wine.

For the police, evidence was given by Constables Fitzpatrick, McCallum and Diggle. Constable Fitzpatrick said he had been told that Mlikota was charging 2s 9d a bottle for beer and 8s per bottle for wine. In their evidence the constables detailed the watch which had been kept on the house and the events on the night of the raid. Mlikota, through his interpreter, made a general denial of the police statements. Mr Lawry, addressing Mlikota, said

that.he thought defendant knew what was being said, and wanted to know how he had communicated certain complaints he had made to the police on previous occasions. Mr Lawry said he could not believe what Mlikota was saying in view of the evidence under oath 6f two constables. After a considerable' time had been spent in examining Mlikota and further evidence taken, Mr Lawry said he would enter a conviction on the first I charge, but would dismiss the second I charge.