PRIVATE BARS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 30, 4 February 1913, Page 5

PRIVATE BARS.

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.''

j NOTICE OF APPEAL GIVEN.

[press association.]

WELLINGTON, Feb, 4. . An important judgment relative to private bars was given to-day by Dr McArthur, S.M. The licensee of the Adelphi Hotel was charged with having employed a female in his private bar who was not registered as a barmaid.

His Worship held that the bar referred to in the information was a private bar, and that an offence had been committed.

Defendant was fined £2 and courtfees.

The magistrate pointed out that the penalty was a. recurring one, but said that he had no desire in the present case to inflict such a penalty, as it was a test case.

Mr T. Wilford, counsel for the defence, pointed out that the effect of the judgment was so far-reaching that it might have the effect of imposing ■ihe liability on hotelkeepers of reconstructing their licensed premises, which had been constructed under the authority of the existing law, and it might also affect the license issued f-o many hotel-keepers in New Zealand, so far as the relation of "bar" to "license" applied. He therefore gave notice to appeal. ' Several similar cases were adjourned.