INVITATIONS TO HOTEL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 22, 27 January 1928, Page 9

INVITATIONS TO HOTEL.

WHEN IS GUEST "BONA FIDE?" COMMENTS BY MAGISTRATE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Thursdav. If a bone-fide lodger at an hotel invites a man in for the mere purpose of having a drink, that man may be convicted of being unlawfully on licensed premises, and the lodger may be convicted of supplying, said Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., when giving his decision in a licensing prosecution to-day. Informations against Charles Grey and John Edmund Nixon were dismissed. Gray, a sheep-farmer, had booked in at an hotel one afternoon. He was charged with unlawfully supplying liquor to Nixon, who was prosecuted for being illegally on the premises. Sergeant Martin said the police contended that Nixon was not a bona fide guest, but if the case against him failed, that against Gray must fail also. The magistrate said that although the information might be unusual here—in fact, it was the first he had heard—it was not so rare in other districts where lodgers had frequently been convicted of supply to people who were not their guests. "I think it a very great pity that these men should have caused themselves, the police and others so much trouble by the inexactness of their statements," added the magistrate. "This would never have come about had Gray not made the sergeant understand that lie had invited Nixon down for a drink, and inviting in for a drink is just thrilling section 204 was intended to cover/'