HOTEL RAID AT AKAROA

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30157, 14 June 1963, Page 13

HOTEL RAID AT AKAROA

Twelve Charges Dismissed

Charges of being illegally on the premises against 12 of 16 persons found in the bar of the Madeira Hotel. Akaroa. when it was raided by a Christchurch police party on April 5, were dismissed by Mr E. A. Lee, S.M., at a sitting of the Akaroa Magistrate’s Court. Stanley Rang! Martin, the licensee, was convicted and fined £6 on a charge of selling liquor after hours. Ronald Rhodes, Dennis J. Pickens. Colin Biehan and Desmond G. Munro were each convicted and fined £3 with costs on charges of being illegally on the premises. Similar charges were dismissed against Desmond Kotlowski, Evelyn Kotlowski (his wife), T. E. Armstrong, Charles T. Campbell, Norman G. Blazey. Ernest Leigh Langrope. Patrick Joseph Mora, Larry Bryant, Ernest Bruce Woodill, Heaton Israel Rhodes, Justin Le Lievre and David Manawatu. Mr A. S. Hearn appeared for Martin and the other defendants. and Sergeant B Read prosecuted. Police evidence was given that when the hotel was visited at 9.20 p.m. on April 5. the persons charged were found in the bar. The evidence detailed the stories of the defendants against whom the charges were dismissed, and it was stated that either Martin, or two permanent boarders in the hotel, Wi Tainui and Matthew Shepherd. claimed them as their guests. “Forgotten Man”

Ronald Rhodes admitted that he had bought beer, said Sergeant Read, and Munro had just arrived when the police walked in. He too, admitted buying a beer. The sergeant described Bichan as "the forgotten man," whom nobody claimed. Pickens, too, admitted buying liquor. Mr Hearn said that the circumstances were that Martin, who was to transfer the hotel licence the next day. had told the Akaroa constable that he would ibe inviting friends to the hotel on the night of the raid, and on the next night. It was significant, he said, that in the police evidence, there was no mention of money passing across the bar. Tainui and Shepherd, in evidence, said that they had invited friends to the hotel to bid farewell to Martin and his wife. Both denied in cross-examination that they had accepted those in the bar as their guests when the police arrived. Onus On Those In Hotel The Magistrate said that while the law permitted a licensee and his lodgers to entertain guests, the onus was on those in the hotel to show that they were there as bona fide guests. The fact that a licensee and his boarders elected to entertain in the bar might arouse suspicion, but so long as it was established that those present were bona fide guests, no offence was committed. In this case, said the Magistrate. the circumstances w’ere unusual in that the licensee was leaving the hotel the next day. He had invited friends to meet him. and Tainui and Shepherd had invited their friends to help things along and make it a congenial, friendly occasion.

If a person went to a hotel for the sole purpose of drinking, he was not a bona fide guest, but if he called to see the licensee or a lodger. and was invited to have a drink, it was perfectly legal and proper. It might appear to an uninformed person that comings and goings at a hotel after hours indicated large-scale illegal trading, when, in fact. the licensee was quite properly supplying liquor to bona fide guests of the licensee and his lodgers. "It sounds a bit like the old story of the licensee and his boarders who, in a remarkable way, open their hearts and their pockets after hours,” said the Magistrate However, the circumstances were such that he would accept the evidence that a majority of those in the bar were bona fide guests.

Regimental Band. The Band of the Ist Canterbury Regiment will leave Christchurch by air tomorrow for Wellington where it will play at the State opening erf Parliament.