LATE CALLERS CAUGHT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 31 August 1929, Page 10

LATE CALLERS CAUGHT.

\Y AIM ATE HOTEL VISITORS.

INTERVIEWED BY CONSTABLE,.

COURT CHARGES FOLLOW

J’olice visits paid to the Wiarimato Ho Lei at' Manaia Tate on the. ©von in" Oil' July 17. during, the afternoon ol' which a M aori football match had been played in the. Domain, resultel in a series- of eight charges of breaches of the Licensing Act being preferred before Mr R. W. Tate, S.M., in the Miana.ia Court yesterday. Tne prosecutions were conducted by Sergeant J. Heni-y. Tonga Tutai. who was the on’iy one ol four Maori defendants to appear in court, entered a plea, of guilty' when charged with having been found after hours on the 'licensed premises of the hotel. . Defendant was standing outside the back door of the hotel at 11.30 ip.m. when Constable Scanuel entered the yard, said Sergeant Henry. In reply to th-e constable, Tonga.lmcl £t<ate , d. tin it' hie. was waiting for a. friend. Remarking that half-past eleven at night was a late hour at which to be making friendly calls and that persons found loitering in the vicinity of hotel doors at that time were well advised to plead guiltv if chargedl with being’ unlawfully on 'the premises, the magistrate entered a fine of £1 'and las costs. William Haw©, of Okaiawa, Hawe Rater©, of Okaiawa, and N ulcii Ta;i aw.hiti of Aurora. who were caught, leaving the hotel at twenty minutes .past ten did not a ©pear in court to reply to similar charges, hut forwarded letters pleading guilty. Each was fined LI and 108 TWO BOTTLES OF WHISKY. Entrance made to the hotel <by the constable on the occasion of the 11.30 call resulted in the licensee. Chaoss Ludwig Kasper, being charged on two counts with (a) selling liquor after hours to Henry William Whalen, and (b) opening the premises alter hours tor the sale of liquor, while Whalen was charged with being unlawfully on the premises after hours and also with I procuring the commission of an offence in obtaining unlawfully la supply of Liquor. Roth, pleaded not guilty to the charges and were represented by Mr li. M. Beechey. After questioning the native Tonga at the. back door of the hotel, at 11.30 p.m., lie knocked, and, following a delay of about two minutes, til© door was opened by the licensee, said Constable Scanned in evidence. V halien, who kept a, coal and wood depot at the i rear of the hotel, was standing in the passageway with the licensee. “I noticed that his coat was bulging out in. front,” continued the constable. “I lifted the coat and noticed a bottle of whisky in each of Lie right and lefthand pockets of his trousers. I asked him what he intended doing with the whisky. He said it was for a dance to be held the next night at Ivapuni.” When th© constable asked the licensee as to who bad supplied the liquor he replied “I did.” Witness inspected the place and found that the bar was closed. Two days later AVha.len informed the constable that the whisky was for his wife and daughter, whom he expected to be ill. Replying to Mr Beecliey, the constable said ihe had known Y\ lia.en for a considerable oeriod, and always found him of good character . Mr Beechey: Do you know that he keeps his coal depot locked? Witness: Yes, he would need to I here. , ~ , Do you knew that he keeps the key in the hotel ?—Yes. Two days 'later he expressed surprise to Whalen that he should have been found coming out of the hotel after hours with whisky. Whalen did not drink to excess, said' the constable m further cross-examination. It was possible that Whalen may have lost A something from his lorry' by their, but the constable could' not recollect having been so informed bv Whalen. PRIOR SALE ALLEGED.

The defence. ,sad Mr Beechey, was that- the complete sale of the liquor took place before six o’clock, and that at the time the, constable called Whalen was merely taking the liquor away after having entered the hotel, as usual, to 'leave the keys of his coal and firewood depot. \\ lialen, who usually took meal>g at the hotel, had tea at_s.3o, and then gave the licensee a £o not© to pay for his tea,, and also two bottles o-f Whiskv, stating he wou'ld secure the change later. He asked,the licensee to plan the whisky in a luggage-room adjacent to the office, and said lie wound call for it later. Whifien went to a neighbouring billiard saloon intending to remain there for a short time only, but as the proprietor was called away he agreed to remain and close the place at 1L o’clock. He then returned! to the hotel yard to take out Ins lorry, in winch he usually drove to his '.home at Knipimi. He went into the 'hotdl to leave the kevs of the depot and' the yard and took the whisky from the luggage room. The reason he did not place the whisky in a luggage-room adthe evening was that he had previously lost certain property from the yard. Defendant Kasper stated in evidence that in 16 vears experience of hotelkeeping the occasion was only the second on which he held been before the court. Witness corroborated the outline given bv counsel with reference to the present charge. During the evening two natives who asked to b© served with drinks had been refused. Cross-examined by Sergeant Henry, witness is ai d did not he.ar AViiiiniteii tell Constable Sca.nnell that lie was taking the whisky to a dance being held at Kamini the next evening. EXPLANATION QUERIED.

Sergeant Henry: Why did you not ted tne constable that the whisky had Coen sold to Whalen before six o’clock? Witness: The constable did not asik me what time 1 sold it, though I admitted that 1 had supplied Whalen. 1 didn’t think any further explanation was necessary. Allan Char.es Kasper, son of the previous witness, said lie was in the office w.ien Whalen entered at about J 1 o’clock. Whalen had siccuied the whisky from the luggage room. After listening for a short while to a. wireless broadcast from Japan, lie left to go out by the hack door. Witness wills certain the bar was not opened to get the whisky for Wlia'.en. Defendant Whalen also corroborated in evidence, the circumstances) outlined by counsel. When he returned to, the hotel just after eleven he was not concerned so much with the quostion of taking the whisky as with the necessity of returning the keys of the shed, in which, travellers at the hotel had oars. Oil the footpath after they left the 'hotel Constable Scanned expressed surprise that witness had been taking whisky out of the hotel at that time. Witness

replied that he was taking the whisky homo. He also stated that he was to have taken some forms and tables from the Mamaiia Town Haii For a. barn dance being organised by Manaia. Road residents in aid of the earthquake' rdiief fund and that one of the workers had requested witness to bring back a. “spot.” Two days' later witness told tile constable that the whisky was not wholly intended for the people ooneerned with the biarn dance. Some of it was to be taken - hoije for medical purnoses. . DECISION RESERVED. The discrepancy between the respective versions given by the constable and

himself concerning their conversation might be due to misapprehension on the part of the constahle. said Whaiien in c nos s-e xamina tion. Sergeant Henry: Constable Scanned is prepared to state there was no conversation on the footpath. Witness: I say there was. After securing the whisky from the hotel, witness, hid it in the lorry, winch was left outside the hotel until about I o’clock while witness went to the footballers’ dance to gee a. Maori. Sergeant Henry: Well, though you could not. put the whisky in the lorry earlier in the evening,, you were not frightened to leave it there between II and 1 o’clock. ’ Witnssi: I had it wdll planted then. Why didnt you tell the constable that you bought, tin whisky before six and asked the licensee to put it in the luggage room for vou?—You don’t think of these things at the time. Decision was reserved, the magt.strate saying ,he wished. to carefully no ruse the evidence and also to investigate the legal position.