FINED £10

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20744, 2 March 1939, Page 8

FINED £lO

HOTEL LICENSEE | ALLOWING DRUNKENNESS I PERFUNCTORY DEFENDANT "The only Inference I can draw la that the two drunken men were in the bar practically all day until their arrest and they were not ejected,” said Mr S. L. Paterson S.M., in the Magistrate's Court, Hamilton to-day, in convicting Cyril Lansdown Nicholla, licensee of the Frankton Hotel (Mr J. F. Strang) on a charge of allowing drunkenness on licensed premises. Nicholls was fined £lO and costs. He pleaded not guilty. “The barman was not doing his duty and the licensee must have made his inspection of the bar In a very perfunctory manner,” remfirked Mr Paterson In stating that the two drunken men should have been seen. Sitting In Bar Sergeant M. Farrell 6ald he accompanied Constable J. Richardson to the Frankton Hotel for a routine Inapeclion. There were a number of people in the private bar and he saw two men in a very drunken condition. The sergeant then looked for the licensee who agreed with him that It wag not ; the proper manner to conduct the ! hotel if drunken men were allowed to remain on the premises, i The two drunken men were subsequently convicted of being drunk. The barman told the sergeant that he had served the men with drink two hours before but had refused to serve them after. The barman did not reply to the sergeant’s inquiry for a reason why the drunken men were not removed from the premises. Cross-examined, Sergeant Farrell I said the men were not misbehaving and if the licensee had not observed the drunken men his powers of ob- ; servation, thought the sergeant, could jsot have been very keen. Defenoe Submissions Mr Strang submitted that before a conviction could be entered there must be a knowledge or conscious acquiesence of the offence on the part of the licensee or the barman, iHe submitted that the evidence did 1 not show that. | Defendant said in evidence that he j had not seen the two men in the bar i that day before the police arrived. He | did not think the men were sufficiently i intoxicated to be arrested. He denied j that he agreed with Sergeant Farrell that it was no way to conduct a hotel, j Evidence was given by Peter WJI- - liams, a barman, who said he saw the men leave the bar, one having a bottle of beer in his pocket. He did not see them again until the police arrived. He had b%en away from the bar until that time. Sergeant Farrell said one was still very drunk at 9 p.m. that inight when lie wa» released on bail. '