AFTER-HOUR SALE

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1934, Page 5

AFTER-HOUR SALE

LICENSING CASE iiPPEAL

(Per Press Association— Copyright.)

PALMERSTON N., November 9. •Mr Justice Blair has reserved his decision in an ujiusual licensing ap-. peal case. Police-Sergeant Apgland is appealing against , decisions of Mr Stout, S.M., given at Feilding in August, when Albert Edward Hosken, Roy Garden Hosken, and John David Farmer, , were charged with aiding the'commission of an offence by the licensee of the Manchester Hotel, Feilding, D. F. Barrett, namely the sale of liquor, after hours. The Magistrate, in dismissing the charges had said that the defendants admitted to the police being licensed premises after, -hours and procuring liquor but .they were' not found on the premises by the; police. The Magistrate held that they could not be charged with -. a breach of the Licensing Act, contending that the Act was a special one; secondly, consideration' ... of the penalties' • showed, that it could never have been-intend-: ed .to render purchasers-liable to the penal I'clauses of .. Section -190. Under Section 194, the maximum was £2; under Section 190 it was . £2O. There could be no suggestion that the legislature intended such a penalty for one purchasing drink, after hours who was not found by the police on the premises and that a .person caught on the premises . was only liable for a fine of £2; defendant wasa purchaser, not a seller and it was straining the. Justices of the Peace Act to suggest-that a purchaser aided the seller to sell his goods.