WHISKY-STILL SEIZED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19798, 19 November 1927, Page 15

WHISKY-STILL SEIZED.

iTWO MEN PLEAD, .GUILTY. ' FINES OF £25 IMPOSED. NO LIQUOR MANUFACTURED. .Resulting from the seizure of an unlicensed whisky-still in a shed in St. Liiki's Road, Mount Albert, on Monday, John McSweeney, storeman, appeared in the Police Court yesterday and admitted having the still in his possessi?>n, • whila John Newman Lyons, mptal . worker, pleaded guilty to supplying 1 it. This is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind heard in Auckland. Mr. Hubble, who appeared for the in•pect'or of distilleries, said the still was discovered on the premises of McSweeney's brother at Mount Albert. It was in a shed, complete and in working order. McSweeney actually kept the stili and worked it while Lyons, who was a tinsmith, superintended the making of it. However, there was no evidence of any liquor having been supplied to anyone. '"The still was only in the experimental stage," said Mr. A. Moody, on behalf of McSweeney. He submitted the ends of justice ' would be amply met if the Coilrt imposed a fine of £25, which was the minimum for the offence, £IOO being the maximum. "And then there is their labour," he added. "Certainly it may have been a labour of love, but it was a labour lost because of the vigilance of the police." Ml*. .Finlay, for Lyons, said that originally the plant was designed as a milkcooling. apparatus, but it was not long before the idea of converting it into a, whisky still was corceived. He urged the imposition of the minimum penalty, saying that for two years the men had worked on ; the machine after hours at night, only now to have the completed article taken from them. '"Did you say milk-cooling apparatus?" Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., asked. Mr. Finlay replied in the affirmative. Mr. Hubble: I think, sir, if defendants had opened a dairy for the sale of milk from' this apparatus they would have became very popular! F.ach defendant was fined . £25 with costs, the magistrate stating that obTtously the Legislature regarded the offence as a serious one. "If I had thought the still had been in use, even for a short time, I would have imposed a more substantial penalty," he ■ said. "However, I remember the two years of wasted labour, the fact , that the machine was not in proper working order, and that there is no evidence of any liquor having been sold."