SALE OF LIQUOR TO LODGERS.

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 86, 8 October 1920, Page 4

SALE OF LIQUOR TO LODGERS.

C»T IELMHAPH^-MUM ASSOCIATION.)

CHRISTOHURCH, 6th October. A little-known point in licensing law was raised with success at Lyttelton today, when the licensee of the Empire Hotel was charged with having Sold liquor during prohibited hours, also with having exposed liquor for sale during such hours. The police evidence was to the effect that three man were found in tho commercial room of the hotel before 9 a.m. with liquor in front of them. Two of them were boarders, and one W2« not. Counsel for the defendant said that a judgment given on an appeal by tha late Mr. Justice Richmond in a. similar case in 1895 still stood as the correct interpretation of the law on the point. The judgment said : "A sale of liquor by a licensed innkeeper on a Sunday to a lodger for consumption by himself and others whom he has met 'in the vicinity of a bar and invited to have a drink with him, the lodger calling for the drinks and paving for them, is a sale to the lodger within the meaning of section 156 of the Licensing Act, 1881, and is lawful under that" Act. The mere exposure of liquor in a bar, so as to be visible to others whilst drink lawfully sold to a lodger is being handed out .from the bar, does not constitute exposure for sale to such others, or an exposure for sale generally, within the meaning of section 155 or the Act."

The Magistrate, Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, accepted the decision quoted. It used to be the law, he said, that a lodger could only be supplied for his own consumption. It was now extended to cover a sale to a lodger for the entertainment of his guests. The fact that- the War Regulations Act made shouting illegal did not affect the point in the Licensing Act. The information was dismissed.