SLY-GROG SELLING.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18674, 24 April 1926, Page 9

SLY-GROG SELLING.

MENACE TO THE DISTRICT. Archibald John Templeman appeared at .tho Ashburton Magistrates Court yesterday, on three charges of selling liqiior within the no-iiccnse district 01 Ashburtou on March 29th, to one, Alexander McLintock. Mr t. DMosfey, S.M.. presided. Mr \V. J. Cra croft Wilson appeared for the defendant, who pleaded not guilty. Senior-Sergeant Mathieson, wo prosecuted, stated that the e J" u j® n ' would go to show that on March /ato, in consequence of one of the witnesses brought to the l'olicc Station to ha\ v e injuries attended to, he gave t e police a statement in which he sai that he went to Tcmpleman's house on three occasions during the evening, auu bought n bottle of whisky each tinie. John McCullough Forsyth stated that 011 two occasions 011 March L4)th, he accompanied a man named McLmtocJ. in a taxi up the Alford. Korest road, and they stopped a tew chains above Templeman's house. He waited in the taxi, while McLintock went away, ana returned with a bottle- of whisky each time. Later in the evening they were joined, by a man named Gourdie, and they went into a room at the rear of the Somerset Hotel, where they had some drinks, and McLintock went away and came back with another bottle. They went up to the Post Office, where there was an argument, and McLintock was- hurt. They went around to th» Police Station, and he gave a statement to tho police. In giving evidence, James Alexander McLintock stated that he went up to the Alford Forest road in the taxi to Ret a bottle of whisky, which he had bought at Chertsey, and had planted in a fence in. the vicinity of Templeman s some time previously. Ifc took him about ten. minutes to find the bottle, and he returned to the car. At this stage the Senior-Sergeant asked the Magistrate to treat the witness as hostile. ; The witness stated that he did not remember making a statement to the police. Mr. Wilson to the, Magistrate: I ask you to take into consideration the circumstances under which the statement was made. The Magistrate (looking at the witness): I can tell when a man is telling a. lie—remember your are on oath. Are ■you prepared to tell the truth? "Yes," replied the witness, and ho commenced to give his evidence afresh. He said that he went up to TempleJi.tan's door and got a bottle of whisky for which he paid £l. He returned 011 two other occasions ihe same evening, and obtained a bottle each time, paying the same amount. 111 answer to Mr Wilson, witness stated that at the Police Station, the police did not hold out any inducement to him to make his statement. He had' bought a bottle Of whisky at Chertsey. In the . witness box, Templeman stated that on the night in question, he was in his bed, and-he never saw a sign of McLintock. 'He was told that there was a sly-grogger about two doors away from liis place. In answer to the Senior-Sergeant, witness stated that McLintock went to tli'e solicitor's ■ office of his, own free will. He never went to Christchurch in' company with McLintock. Mr Wilson stated that Templeman was working hard, he had.fr wife and child to support, and he was leaving the district. •

The Magistrate: He is an absolute roenape to the district. Ho has been tampering with 'the witness, who w:is man enough to tell the truth after all sorts of temptations ha'l been put in his way to do otherwise. The Court should have power to send this man. away for more than three months. Me has. been convicted six times in connexion with liquor. Mr Wilson: If you will' give him a. chance, he will go to the West Coast on Monday.

The Magistrate: "Yes,he frill have the chance when he comes out of gaol—lie is convicted and: sentenced to three months' hard labour." Two of' the charges were withdrawn.