LICENSING ACT PROSECUTIONS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27377, 16 June 1954, Page 12

LICENSING ACT PROSECUTIONS

Magistrate Criticises Delay

“SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG”

(New Zealand Press Association) i WANGANUI, June 15. Mr S. S. Preston, S.M., suggested in the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui today that charges against hotel licensees should have been brought in less time than a month, and before the annual meeting of the licensing committee. The Magistrate was commenting on a police application for the adjournment of proceedings against the proprietor of the Whangaehu Hotel. The charges concerned offences allegedly committed on May ligand May 16. “It looks as if they [the charges] have been deliberately delayed until after the annual licensing meeting," said the Magistrate. Sergeant J. P. Clements replied that he was not aware of anything of the sort “There is something seriously wrong when the police cannot bring a charge within a month,” said the Magistrate. “Oh, well, the commission is at present dealing with these matters. “In the meantime I suppose we had better go through the farce of accepting these versions of late trading, when we all know these hotels are trading generally. “The laws are not in accord with public opinion, and the sooner they are amended and we get reasonable licensing laws the better it will be,” said the Magistrate. “The Court is onlv being made a convenience of to make it appear everything is in order. “In rural areas farmers and others cannot drink in licensed hours if they are doing a job of work. “Until the laws are amended or the police strictly enforce present ones, we will not get anywhere. Most of these hotels are open most nights of the week,* the Magistrate concluded.