AN ILLICIT STILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 254, 2 November 1897, Page 5

AN ILLICIT STILL.

SEIZED AT PUHIPUHI.

Two officers of the Customs Department, Messrs Kowe and Bartley, went down to Puhipuhi from Auckland last Saturday, and made a seizure of an illicit still which was discovered at work. A man named James McAinmon was arrested ,at the same time, and he was brought up to Auckland by the s.s. Wellington last night, together with the working plant of the still.

At the Police Court this morning before Mr H. \V. Brabant, S.M., McAinmon was charged with being unlawfully in possession of an illicit still a»d working the same at Puhipuhi. Mr McAHster, instructed by the Crown Prosecutor, appeared for the Customs Department, and asked for a remand, lie said the accused had been discovered working the still, and he believed that he was one of a large gang who were carrying on distilling operations in and around the goldlields. "When asked whether he objected to a remand McAinmon, who is an elderly man, said he " was guilty of being in the liou.se, but lie never lixed the still there, nor made any whisky." The man who, did it, he added, had cleared oil' the steamer when it reached town last night. The accused was remanded for a week.