LAW COURTS.

Lake County Press, Issue 2390, 24 August 1911, Page 5

LAW COURTS.

At the Gore Magistrate's Court on Thursday, A. M. Plunk, licensee of the Wallacetown Junction Hotel, was charged before Mr 11. A. Young, S.M., with sending liquor in a no-license district without notifying tho clerk of the

Magistrate's Court. Defendant, w

pleaded " not guilty," was defended by Mr W F. Inder. ' Inspector O'Dono van prosecuted, and outlined the offence. Defendant said he received an order on August 5 for two bottles of whisky. There was no post office adjacent to his hotel, and he had a private bag which he forwarded by the 'bus to Tnvercargill every day at 9 a.m Accordingly any orders received after 9 a.m. could not be forwarded to the Clerk of the Court until next morning. This was what happened in this instance The order was received afier 9 a.m. on Saturday and could not be notified until Monday morning. Crossexamined : Other 'buses ran during the day, but the drivers would not post letters unless specially paid. The Inspector in reply to the Magistrate said he could not press for a conviction under the circumstances. The Magistrate said that apparently defendant had used the first available mail. The case would accordingly be dismissed The other two informations were withdrawn.

At the Dunedin Police Court Mr 11. Y. Widdowson, S.M.. gave his reserved decision in the cases against licensee and barman of the Shamrock Hotel, charged respectively with allowing liquor to be supplied to a youth under 21 years of age and with supplying liquor to him. Thoy were the first cases of the kind in Dunedin. The case against the licensee was dismissed on the ground that she had no knowledge of the act of supplying. The barman was fined 20s and coste, it being decided that he committed a breach of section 202 of the Act. At the Police Court, Dunedin, All Loy was fined £5 and costs in default six months imprisonment for having opium in his possession. Owing to the difficulty of getting opium the police stated that the Chinese were now resorting to evaporating laudanum to conditions suitable for smoking.