MEAT RATIONING REGULATIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 271, 28 August 1946, Page 3

MEAT RATIONING REGULATIONS

BREACHES BY BUTCHERY MANAGER , FINES TOTAL £302 (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 27. Fines ..totalling £302 10s in respect of 10 charges involving breaches of the meat rationing! regulations were imposed on C. I. Villars, manager of Barber and Co., butchers, Wellington, by Mr H. J. Thompson, 5.M.., in a reserved judgment in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. Several other defendants Avere also fined.

Villars, who accepted responsibility for the offences relating to Barber and Co., Avas fined £IOO for overstating the quantities of .meat supplied to the Dominion Monarch, £75 in respect of the Themistocles, £SO in respect of the Akaroa, £25 in respect of. the Karamea, £25 in respect of Georges Ltd. (Empire Cafe), £7 lus in respect of the Wellington Club, and £5 on each of four charges in respect of Hill Bros., Ltd. t Georges - Ltd. (Empire Cafe) Avere fined for £75 for acquiring meat in excess of their permit, B. A. Single, manager of the Wellington Club, Avas fined £7 10s on a similar charge, and Hill Bros., Ltd., £5 on each of four similar charges. At the hearing on August 16, Mr Shortland, Avho appeared for Villars, raised a point of luav that the informations Avere -out of time and could not therefore be proceeded Avith. The Magistrate, giving his reserved judgement, ruled that Amendment No. 2 to the Supply Control Emergency Regulations, 1939. exempted’ information from the operation of clause 50 of the Justice of the Peace Act, requiring that informations must be laid within six months from the commission of the alleged offence. The Magistrate , said he viewed the charges against the defendants as very serious. It Avas liis duty to impose heavy penalties. The meat involved in the charges amounting to something like 20 tons a Aveek’s ration for about 17,600 persons an New Zealand and many more in England. Mr W. R. Birks prosecuted on behalf of the Rationing Controller.