LICENSEE FINED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19956, 26 May 1928, Page 14

LICENSEE FINED.

CONTENTS OF A BOTTLE. "NOT ACCORDING TO LABEL." WARNING BY MAGISTRATE. To impress on licensees of hotels the seriousness of the offence, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M-, in the Police Court yesterday, fined Andrew Beggs, licensee of the Masonic Hotel, Devonport, £2O on a charge of using a bottle labelled "Hennessy's Three Star Brandy," for the purpose of bottling another kind of spirit for sale. "People must get what they pay for," said the magistrate, in imposing the penally. Prosecuting for the Health Department, Mr. Hubble called inspectors to depose that the brandy in the bottle was not according to label. While admitting the fact, Mr. Allan Moody, for Beggs, said the bottle was one placed high up on a shelf in a corner. It was not intended to be sold, but was kept for use in the kitchen. The Magistrate: You cannot convince me that the licensee kept on a shelf in the bar one bottle specially for the kitchen. In fining Beggs the minimum penalty the magistrate said:—"He had better watch out or he will lose his licence. We cannot have this sort of business going on. When a man pays for a certain drink in hard cash, he rightly expects to get it —not something else pushed on to him in a similar bottle." The barmaid, Miss N. McDonald, admitted a charge of having failed to comply with the demand of the health inspectors for a bottle of brandy for the purposes of analysis. It was said that one of the inspectors asked to have a nip out of a bottle other than the one out of which his companion's drink was poured. His request was granted, but when he sought to buy the bottle to analyse the contents his request was refused by the barmaid. However, the bottle was eventually seized and analysed. " I am sure that Miss McDonald was acting under mistaken loyalty to her employer," said Mr. Hubble. "This is brought as a warning to others in her capacity." Convicting defendant and ordering her to pay costs, the magistrate said:—" We cannot have health inspectors obstructed in this way. They have their multifarious and difficult duties to perform in the interests of the public and should bo assisted rather than hindered." PROSECUTION AT WELLINGTON. PENALTY OF TWENTY POUNDS. [BY TELEGRAPH.- —I'RESS ASSOCIATION. ] WELLINGTON. Friday. Thomas Hannafin, licensee of the Brunswick Hotel was fined £2O for bottling whisky in a bottle from which the original label had not been removed.