LICENSING ACT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 25, 9 November 1934, Page 3

LICENSING ACT.

PURCHASE OF LIQUOR AFTER HOURS. (Per Press Association';. PALMERSTON N., November 8. An unusual case was heard in the Supreme Court, before Mr Justice Blair. Police-Sergeant Anglaud appealed against decisions of Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., given at Feildiug in August, when three men, Albert Edward Hosken, Roy Cordon Hosken, and John David Farmer, were charged with aiding the commission, of an offence by the licensee of the Manchester Hotel, Feildiug, D. P. Barrett, namely, the sale of liquor after hours. The Magistrate, in dismissing the charges, had said that the defendants admitted to tho police being on licensed premises after hours and procuring liquor, but they were not found on the premises by the police. The Magistrate held that they could not ho charged witli a breach of the Licensing Act, contending first that the Act was a special one; second, consideration of the penalties showed that it could never have been intended to render purchasers liable to the penal clauses of section 190. Under section 194, the maximum penalty was £2; under section 190 it was £2O. There could be no suggestion that the legislature intended such a penalty for one purchasing drink after hours who was not found by the police on the premises, and that a person caught on the premises was only liable for a fine oi £2; defendant was purchaser, not a seller, and it was straining the Justices of the Peace Act to suggest that a purchaser aided the seller to sell ins goods. . Mr Justice Blair reserved his decision.