A "Shilling-in" Pool.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 52, 30 August 1894, Page 2

A "Shilling-in" Pool.

"• IBY TjCLBGRAPH. I i united pekbß association^ Auckland, This Day. An important question under the Licensing Act came np before his Hononr Mr. Justice Conolly it the Snpreme Court in Banco this morning in an appeal case. Charles E. Brewer, hotelkeeper, of Eltham, Taranaki, was the appellant, and PoliceSergeant Stagpole the respondent. Mr. Theo. Cooper appeared for the appellant, and Mr. J. A. Tole for the respondent. The appellant was licensee of the Branch Hotel at Eltham, and the appeal was against a deoision of District Judge Kettle, who fined Brewer £5 15s for Sunday trading. The, facts were as follows :— Five persons were in the hotel on Sunday, 27th May, three being lodgers and the other two residents of the town. The five went into the bar parlour and had a " shilling in and the winner to shout." One cf the lodgers won the " pool," and paid for the drinks, which were duly consumed by the whole five. On this evidence the Magistrate imposed a, fine. Mr. Cooper contended that the drinks were cold to the lodger, not to the other members of the party. He bought the drinks, the pool having become his property, and the hotelkeeper did not as a matter of fact sell any drink to the other four. His Honour upheld Mr. Cooper's contention, and allowed the appeal. The sale of drinks, his Honour said, was a sale to the lodger alone, and not to the two residents, and it was not necessary to determine whether they were guests in the teohnical eeaae of the term.