PARTY OR DANCE?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 10, 13 January 1941, Page 9

PARTY OR DANCE?

IN A CITY HALL

MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT

Licensees of public dance halls who invited their" patrons to continue dancing as their guests after midnight on Saturdays should have their licences cancelled, said Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today. Such an action, he said, was a deliberate attempt to -evade the regulation against the drinking of liquor at public dances.

The case was one in which William Steven Pearce, aged 47, a carpenter, was charged with having port wine in his possession in a city dance hall whiie'a dance was being held.

The defence, conducted by Mr. A. B. Sievwright, admitted that Pearce had been found with half a bottle of port wine, but contended that as the time was 12.5 a.m. on a Sunday the dance was not. a public one, but was a private party. The licence of the hall prohibited the holding of public dances after midnight on Saturdays, and it was the practice of the proprietor to close the doors at midnight and invite the people inside to remain for, another hour as his guests. Pearce accordingly pleaded not guilty. The Magistrate, however, convicted him and fined him £2. Mr. Stout said that there was no evidence to show that the dance, wao'anything but a public dance.

A charge against Pearce of damaging a cigarette machine belonging to J. Rae was dismissed. He pleaded not guilty