BALMORAL HOTEL

Grey River Argus, 7 April 1943, Page 2

BALMORAL HOTEL

Qse for Diefence DECISION RESERVED. PA. WELLINGTON, April 6. The hearing of the charge against Sarah Anne Vangioni of permitting the Balmoral Hotel to be used as a house, of ill-fame concluded to-day. The Magistrate, Mr. Stillwell, intimated that he would give' his decision on Monday., . , x Opening the case for the defence, Mr. C. H. Weston emphasised that the premises had to be regarded, for the time being, as the home of the occupants. That being so, 'the majority! of the incidents witnessed by the police were innocent. But if rhe Court began with an assumption that the place was a brothel, then they were guilty incidents. The assumption that it was a boarding house was not destroyed by the fact that some boarders were not innocent. Because' a certain number misconducted themselves was no reason why, all servicemen should be refused admission; or were all premises where they were admitted to be' regarded as brothels? There was n 0 lounge or bar in the hotel, and the occupants, like thousands of others in Wellington, had to live and entertain in the.r bedrooms. He contended that the police evidence of misconduct by some of the boarders was insufficient to convert the place from a boarding house to a brothel. The defendant said, in evidence, that she was unaware that the incidents stated to have been observed by the police were going on in the house.