BARMEN’S GUESTS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 203, 11 August 1927, Page 8

BARMEN’S GUESTS.

SUPPLY OF LIQUOR AFTER HOURS. MAGISTRATE’S JUDGMENT. Wellington, Aug. 10. Whether barmen are entitled to supply their own guests after hours hours was the subject of a reserved judgment by Mr. E. Page, S.M., today. Michael Burke, licensee of the City Hotel, was charged with selling liquor, exposing liquor for sale, and allowing liquor to be consumed, when his premises were directed by law to be closed. Three charges of unlawfully supplying liquor were preferred against the barman, Timothy O’Connell.

When the police entered the hotel they found six men, three of them barmen employed there, and the other three friends. O’Connell was behind the bar in his shirt sleeves. The main door of the bar was locked but the slide into the passage was open. The bar was lit up and the licensee was upstairs. It was O’Connell’s day oil and he was accustomed to spend it with the friends in question and have tea with them at one of their own homes

The Magistrate considered himself bound by higher Court decision that liquor could be lawfully supplied to a guest of the licensee or a bona fide lodger, but not to a guest of the licensee’s wife or an employee’s. The licensee was fined £1 for allowing liquor to be consumed and O’Connell £5 and costs.