INTOXICATED CARRIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20254, 14 May 1929, Page 10

INTOXICATED CARRIER.

"SHOULD NOT TAKE DRINK."

DIFFICULT TO FIX PENALTY.

MAGISTRATE IMPOSES FINE.

Stating that lorry and van drivers should not drink when on duty, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., convicted Trevor David Lawson, aged 30, carrier, and fined him £5 in the Police Court yesterday on a charge of having been found in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motorvan in the Remuera Road on Saturday night. His licence was endorsed. Evidence was to the effect that the van had run out of petrol in Remuera Road. While a friend of accused was away getting benzine accused was arrested. For accused Mr. McLiver said Lawson had had only two gins during the day and he had not had lunch. He was married. While he was not drunk ho might have been in a state of intoxioation within the definition of the Act. Accused had not been in trouble before. " What am I to do with these men ?" asked the magistrate. "If I take away

their licences I ruin them. It is a hard thing to decide." Mr. McLiver: 1 quite agree with Your Worship. It is difficult to know what to do.

The Magistrate: They should not take

liquor at all. They run the risk of smashing themselves up a,s well as smashing up other people. Mr. McLiver: That is so, sir. But it will be hard on this man, who is not in tho habit of taking drink, if you cancel his licence. He seems to be only a borderlino case.

The Magistrate: Yes. That is the hard part. I know if I cancel his licence his wife and children pay. It means ruin for him. These men ought to know better. This is the fourth or fifth case I have had before me in a few days.