SELLING MEDICATED WINE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2554, 31 August 1915, Page 3

SELLING MEDICATED WINE

GROCERS PROSECUTED. (By Telegraph.—Press ''Association.)" Auoklandj August 27. 1 Before Mr. Prazer; S.M., Forbes "W. Riach and l Robert Burns wore' charged, that 011-August. 5; they-.'sold-' Steam's wine," a medicated wine containing moro than 10 per cent, of proof spirit,!.not being licensed to sell same. , The defendants pleaded guilty without intent. .' . ■ Sub-inspector M'Uveney .stated that' tlie defendants were employed by Smeetons, Ltd., grocers, . and on August '5 tliey , sold' a bottle of Stcarn's wine to Sergeant M'Carthy.;.. It vas stated on tlie label' of! the the tonic conained. 32 per cent. o f proof: Spirit, and the' analysis made endorsed' that fact. Some years .ago the same tonic was tlie subject of a conviction, followed by the conviction being quashed on appeal. . Immediately after .that decision, however, the Licensing Act in 1910 was amended "to include "medicated wines containing more than. 30 per cent. of. proof," so that a person to sell' it, if .not a chemist, had to have a license under the .Licensing Act. < This was, he believed, . the first case 6ince the amendment 'of the Act. , , The defendant Riach, manager of Smeetons,. Ltd.', pointed out that this particular;tonic was : sold' by. merchants throughout New-Zealand, after tlie'de-' cision of the Appeal Court cn the matter, and the merchants w y ere'unaware of the change in" the Act. His Worship agreed that the circumstances stowed honest , ignorance of the law on the subject, and merely recorded a conviction, with : 49s.,;costs.