SIXTY MEN IN BAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 201, 26 August 1939, Page 15

SIXTY MEN IN BAR.

AFTER-HOUR TRADING.

MAGISTRATE CONCEnXED,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Friday

Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in dealing with a charge of liquor selling out of hours, eaid there was no doubt that the sale of liquor in licensed premises in Wellington wa« getting out of hand.

The facts disclosed showed that at the time of a raid on the hotel in question there were about sixty men in the bar.

Mr. Luxford remarked that the prosecutions brought by the police every Friday disclosed that after-hour trading was becoming the usual thing instead of the exception. The case was against Thomas Wolfe, licensee of the -Imperial Hotel, and before imposing sentence the magistrate" asked to see the register. Later he said he had decided not to -endorse the license, as defendant came before the Court as a first offender and there was * clear record against the hotel. He imposed a fine of £10.

"Where there is a specific law," said Mr. Luxford, "the Courts cannot countenance deliberate breaches of that law." He added that the whole of. the facts negatived counsel's explanation, and in any case it showed lack of control, lack of management and lack of responsibility. That was quite inexcueable.

Counsel's explanation was that* defendant had gone to bed early with influenza, leaving the hotel in. charge of an employee. Shortly before the police arrived he was informed that the bar was full of men. He and his wife dressed, and he was actually ordering the men out when the police entered. The police statements included one that there was a scout out.