“SCHOONER KING” FINED

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1940, Page 8

“SCHOONER KING” FINED

DRANK' S QUARTS AT PARTY.

SYDNEY, April 2.

“They call me the ‘Schooner King’ in Rozelle. I have drunk up to 20 schooners of beer in a few hours,” said Mark David Deveridge, licensee of Tattersail Hotel, Rozelle, in the Metropolitan Licensing Court yesterday.

Deveridge was charged with having on February 24, at 10.35 p.m., carried away liquor from the Tattersail Hotel Rozelle. He was fined £5, with 8/costs.

He admitted having taken eight quarts of beer from the hotel, but said he Avas going to a party and that the beer was Jor his own consumption; “I drank the eight quarts, and no one else had any of it,” he said, “I am a competent beer drinker and could doAvn a quart of beer in five minutes.”

Mrs Vera Jane Thompson, of Burns Street, Rozelle, said that she was the hostess at the party attended by Deveridge. She ordered two fivegallon kegs for the party. Eight quarts of beer were in the parcel defendant brought. She opened the beer for him and he drank it himself between 10.20 p.m. and midnight. “I did not regard it as extraordinary,” she added. “He is called the ‘Schooner King.’ The two fivegallon kegs were consigned before midnight. I drink a little, but not too inner. 1 canot say whether I drank a gallon that night.” Mr J. Laidlaw, S.M.: He had 16 schooners —a schooner every six minutes. You don’t think there was anything extraordinary about that? Mrs Thompson; No.

Don’t you think it a bit unsocial for a man to drink eight quarts on his own? —No. Sergeant. McAuley: He didn’t have time to sing? Mrs Thompson: He can’t sing, anyway. Mr Mervyn. Finlay (for Beveridge): Some men drink a lot, your WorshipI could drink two quarts of water in front of you, in two minutes. This man is admitted by th,e police to be a. heavy drinker,, and there are many men who drink a lot, as you know, your Worship. Mr Laidlaw: I don’t know that I do know. Mr Finlay: The people at the party were listening to the music and sipping their beer. Mr Laildaw: Sipping? They must have been sipping very fast. Mr Laidlaw, when convicting Beveridge, asked’ whether an appeal would be lodged, as Beveridge was on a bond from another case, and Mr Mervyn Finlay said thjat he would appeal.