Chief Justice Sends Liquor Analysis Case Back To Magistrate

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23041, 3 September 1949, Page 4

Chief Justice Sends Liquor Analysis Case Back To Magistrate

(P.A.) NAPIER, Sept. 3. An appeal by the Crown against the decision of a magistrate, who dismissed a charge against a Dannevirke hotel licensee, Mrs. Kathleen Brabert, of selling liquor after hours -on the ground that the liquor had not been analysed, was upheld by the Chief Justice, Sir Humphrey O'Leary, in the Supreme Court yesterday.

Counsel for the Crown said it had been proved in the Magistrate’s Court that the defendant sold gin to two men in an hotel bar after- hours. The magistrate dismissed the action because he held that reference to the necessity for analysis to prove that liquor contained at least 3 per cent proof spirit applied to the whole group of liquors mentioned in the appropriate section of the Licensing Act and not to the phrase, “or other fermented distilled or spirituous liquors.” The Crown claimed that if liquors specifically mentioned were sold, then a licensee committed an offence, while if unspecified liquors were given to customers then an analysis* would be necessary to prove that they were capable of intoxication. Gin, the spirit dealt with in this case, was recognised as a spirit containing well over 3 per cent of proof spirit. Counsel for the respondent said tne question before the court was whether or not the word “or” in the Act linked the list of liquors named with the unclassified group as requiring analysis to prove the spirit content. ■ The Chief Justice said that there was no doubt at all about the meaning of the section of the Act. He considered it was clear that analysis ' va . s . nnirpd only in cases where liQiior which was not specifically mentioned had been sold. He granted the appeal nnr i referred the matter back to the magistrate with the direction that the prosecution be entered and an appropriate penalty imposed.