PACKET LICENCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 14, 16 July 1936, Page 7

PACKET LICENCES

WANGANUI RIVER BOATS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

WANGANUI, July 15.

At an adjourned meeting of the Licensing Committee today the number of packet licences for river boats was reduced from five to two, namely, for the Wakapai, 20 tons, and the Otumii, ,10 tons.

his premises for the sale of liquor after hours, and the men were charged with being found on licensed premises after hours.

"I am satisfied from the evidence that Harris invited Jones and Walsho to have a drink with him and that there was no intention on his part to charge them for the liquor he supplied," said the Magistrate. "Their rej lationship with Harris was not one of personal or intimate friendship, but rather a close acquaintanceship arising out of their frequent visits to the hotels he has conducted. When Harris saw them on this particular night, and guessed quite correctly that, they would be thirsty after their work on the wharves, he invited them into the hotel to give them a drink. It was for that reason only that they went into the hotel. HOSPITABLE INTENTIONS. "I am entitled to infer that Karris would not have issued the invitation if his invitees had not been regular customers. I do draw that inference, but I I must also find as a fact that Harris had hospitable intentions. Those findings are somewhat inconsistent at first glance, because a wholly hospitable intention would negative any suggestion of a material motive. But in my opinion it was impossible for Harris in the circumstances I have related to have had wholly hospitable motives or intentions An element of kindness and consideration existed; of .that I have no doubt. Yet in my view the kindness and consideration conferred by Harris upon these two regular customers was actuated more by the motive of maintaining or advancing their good, will in a" material sense than by the motive of true hospitality. And that is how Jones and Walshe would regard tHe invitation."

The Magistrate then pointed out that the evidence negatived a sale but proved the consumption of liquor on licensed premises at a time when those premises were required by law to be closed. He then cited cases and rulings to show that the real guests of a publican could be supplied by him without committing a breach of the law.

"Of course it is impossible to lay down any fixed rule," went on the judgment, "but where the' guests are

regular customers of the hotel, and | are invited in merely to have a drink, I will assume that the object of the publican in gratuitously supplying the liquor is not bona fide to entertain tham, but indirectly to benefit himself by keeping his connection together. The evidence in this case does not rebut that assumption, and I find that Jones and Walshe were not, when found on the licensed premises, Harris's bona fide guests." Harris was fined 20s for allowing liquor to be consumed in the hotel after hours, and each of the other two defendants was fined 10s.