LICENSING CHARGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 13

LICENSING CHARGES.

PUBLICAN'S RESPONSIBILITY.

LICENSEE AND BROTHER FINED.

The licensee of the Queen's Head Hotel, Mary Ellen Kirk, and her brother, Francis Owen O'Connor, were each prosecuted in the Police Court yesterday for breaches of the Licensing Act, the licensee with keeping open premises during closing hours, and O'Connor with supplying liquor after hours.

Mr. Burt appeared for both defendants, who pleaded not guilty. Sergeant Jones said he visited the hotel at 9.15 p.m. on March IS and heard someone leaving hurriedly by the back gate. He found three men in the kitchen. Two admitted that they had come in for a drink, and the thii*d was under the influence of liquor. O'Connor said that he had not supplied the men with liquor. "I could get very little information from who seemed to be dumb," added the sergeant. O'Connor, in evidence, denied that he had served liquor to the men in the kitchen, or that he knew they were there.

Mrs. Kirk said she had held a license since 1922, and had never been convicted. She had been having renovations carried out at the hotel, and heard that two of the men found in the kitchen had called to see her about getting some work. She was away from the hotel on the night, and did not know what had happened. She told her brother to eerve boarders only. After hearing the evidence of three men charged with being found on the premises after hours, who said they had 2one to the hotel to see about some work, the magistrate, Mr. W. R. McKean, said he did not believe them, and lined each the maximum, £2 and costs. Mr. Burt said Mrs. Kirk was an innocent party, though she might be technically responsible. "Although she was not there at the time, she cannot escape responsibility, as she could have taken the keys of the bar with her/' said the magistrate, in fining Mrs. Kirk £5 and costs. "I am quite satisfied that the story told by O'Connor was concocted by him, and is one which I cannot believe," Mr. McKean said, in lining O'Connor £10 and costs.