MAORIS AND LIQUOR

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1927, Page 6

MAORIS AND LIQUOR

. A PECULIAR CLAIM: (By Telegraph.-Press Association.) WHANGAREI, 9th February. An important ease bearing on the consumption of liquor by Maoris was heard before Mr. Levien, S.M., to-day when the Whangarei Maori Council sought to recover from a number of Natives fines inflicted by it for alleged offences, chiefly the drinking of liquorJMr. Menzies appeared for the council, and Mr. Steadman for the defendants, who originally numbered Sse. 7 0110 WaS Chargea as a test forr\ ehf aCr% Wei' e admitte<*, but counsel mL,-p def. e, naants claimed that the' Maon Council was not a corporate body, and therefore, had no right to sue a« such. He also alleged that the offences occurred at the Public Works construe' ; tion camp over which the council had i no jurisdiction. It. was further sub-! nutted that the defendants had been any , lnK*° e\° ber ' but had not ™^ld any notification to attend the meeting ol the council till-the following month Ihe charge was that of consuming home-brewed ale in a kainga or the pa, nhere the dnnkmg had not taken place. Information had been laid by the wife of one of the defendants to the police, who had visited the camp, and had tound nothing illegal, and the defendants were so advised by the constables, further, advice was tendered by the police that the defendants were not to make more than five gallons at a time, as the brew tended to become stronger if made m larger quantities and kept longer. The Magistrate said that in other cases this kind in the North fines had been inflicted for tafting liquor into kiangas, but. in the present ease it was alleged that the offence had taken place in the Public Works camp Was any collection of Maori residences to be designated a kainga? He did not 3110^^