Police v. White.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4878, 16 November 1894, Page 3

Police v. White.

A Licensing Point

In tho S, JI. Court at Masterton, this morning Mr T. Hutchison, S. M. gave judgement in a. case heard at Ekctahuna on the 7th inst, in which Albert White, licensee of tho Universal Hotel at Eketahuna, was charged undor section 155 of the Licensing Act of 1881 with having- 1 committed a broach of tho Act by exposing liquor for sale on Oct. 21st and also with selling liquor. The judgment at some length detailed the position of tho bar and reviewed the evidence. His Worship concluding on tho facts, that tho barrel of beer and some of the bottles were in view of some of the witnesses, and that they had seen liquors disponscd. Tho offenco of exposing drink for sale at prohibited hours was, ho considered, a distinct offence. The words: " exposed for sale," must mean that the thing alleged to bo exposed must bo exhibited in the sight of some person, under circumstances showing that it was purchasable, unless tlio liquor is known to bo there and is concealed only for tho purposo of evasion. His conclusion was that tbore had, in this enso, beon an exposure uudor the statute,

Regarding the second charge of selling liquor within prohibited; hours, Sweeney the man sappliod was slated to bo a lodger, and had therefore been allowed to purchaso liquor for himsolf and others, Thero was a general understanding amongst hotel-kcepcra in tho district, that if a lodger called for drink, it was not an offence to supply as much as might be required, during prohibited hours. He did not think that section 156 covered every case of the kind, In tho caso of Fine v, Bancs (20 Q.8.D., 221) it was hold that an innkeeper who sold and supplied to a buna fide lodger, liquors which wcreconsumod: during prohibited hours in a private! room by himself and his bona fide j guests, aftor a diuner given by a I lodger to them, could not be convicted under section 155. That caso had he understood, been followed by tho N.Z. Supreme Court; but tho law as laid down in Pmc and Barnes was very far from covering a caso of indiscriminate shouting by a lodger at a public bar on a Sunday, It seemed to him that if a case, such as hero disclosed, were hold to be legal, the result would be that an hotelkeeper could legally sell liquor while committing a breach of the Act by exposing liquor for sale, He did not think tho section was intended to covor such cases as the present, and thorefore convicted. A penalty of £5 would bo imposed on the first charge, and as tho second offence arose out of the same circumstances as the first, a minimum penalty of £1 would bo inflicted, tho license also to be endorsod according to stntntc.

Mr I'ownall, for defendant, asked | that tbo license bo not endorsed until after the tinio allowed for appeal lias expired. His Worship agreed to this requost,