DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 July 1943, Page 4

DOMINION ITEMS

DESERTER’S THEFTS. DUNEDIN, July 15.

Described as a deserter from the Army, Robert Wark Johnstone, aged 23, admitted the theft of three thousand cigarettes and other articles from a room in a hotel which was used as a distribution centre for visiting American marines. He was sentenced to a month’s hard labour.

SALE OF LIQUOR. AUCKLAND, July 16

As a sequel to a previous prosecution for breach of the Licensing Act, the firm of A. A. Corban and Sons Ltd., was charged in the Ponce Court, to-day, with a breach of the Price Stabilisation Emergency Regulations, and pleaded guilty. Another charge that the firm sold a bottle or whisky at a price which was unreasonably high was withdrawn. Mr. S. Cleal, who prosecuted .lor the Tribunal, said that on February 22, a woman constable purchased a bottle of whisky for which she was charged £3. The authorised price was £l, so the profit was 400 per cent. Mr. Cleal said that as the film had already been fined £5O, as the result of a licensing breach, and the wholesale license was suspended for six months, the Tribunal had withdrawn the major charge. For defendants, Mr. Prendergast said the firm had been trading lor many years and enjoyed a good reputaThe Magistrate (M.r. Luxford) said the offence amounted to a breach of trust by people who hold a license to sell liquor in a legal way, and was aggravated by the high charge mad foTa bottle of whisky. A fine of £5O was imposed.