AFTER-HOUR TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 4

AFTER-HOUR TRADE

LICENSEE FINED £10

'•In', ordinary cases. I'would have been willing to withdraw the other charges, but this is not an ordinary case. This hotel is very .badly conducted and requires a great dpal of police supervision," said Sergeant J. W. McHolm, at Lower Hutt yesterday, when Mr. T. P. McCarthy, appearing for David Shine, licensee of ' the Bellevue Hotel, asked that two charges of exposing liquor for sale after hours and keeping the bar open after hours be withdrawn. Shine had pleaded guilty to another charge of ■ selling liquor after hours. ■

Sergeant McHolm stated that he and Constable G. Jones- had-gone to doors on opposite sides of the hotel. Mrs. Shine had looked out of the'window and spoken pleasantly to Constable Jones as he walked to the door, but had evidently given a signal to men on the premises to escape by another door, with. the. result that nine or ten men .rushed out of the door being approached by himself. ' The police had a constant battle to keep watch on the hotel. Mrs. Shine evidently kept a watch for police visits and men escaped by other doors.

Sergeant McHolm quoted the number of convictions against persons for being on the premises after hours and said he had had a deputation from citizens of the town who had complained of the conduct of the hotel, which he must admit was very badly conducted. On behalf of Shine Mr. McCarthy said that his client had been two and a half years in another hotel and two and a half years in the present one without a conviction being recorded against him. He submitted that the licensee was not necessarily responsible for men being convicted for being on the premises after hours. The hotel stood in large grounds and it was impossible for the licensee to stop people from entering.

Mr. A. M. Goulding, S.M., said he had come to the conclusion that the licensee did not take steps to discourage people from entering after hours, and the only conclusion .he could come to was that after-hour trade was encouraged. At the same time he would take into consideration that the licensee had not been convicted. The penalty for selling after hours would be £10, which was the maximum. The other charges would be treated as if they had been withdrawn.

At the same sitting three men were fined 30s for being on the premises after hours and another was fined £2 for the same offence.