LIQUOR AFTER HOURS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21318, 20 October 1932, Page 14

LIQUOR AFTER HOURS

FRIENDS AT HOTEL RIGHTS OF LICENSEE RULING BY MAGISTRATE "A licensee is enfitled to ask his personal friends to his hotel, as to his home, but he is not entitled to ask a friend to bring a number of other friends," said Mr. F. 11. Levien, S.M., in the Papakura Police Court yesterday, when Albert William Mclvor, licensee of Ye Jolly Farmer Inn, Drury, was charged .with selling liquor after hours on October 8. Defendant pleaded not guilty. Constable T. Holland, of Papakura, said that ho visited the hotel with Constable Powell, of Fukekohc. He found a back door open and entered the public bar. At the counter were three men, who admitted having consumed one whisky each. There were no glasses on the counter, but some money was passed in his presence. Witness went into the lounge and saw several men and women, who told him they were guests of the licensee and were listening to a radio account of a wrestling match. There were a few empty beer bottles and glasses in the lounge, but the slide between the bar and the lounge was closed Constable C. W. Powell also gave evidence. He said that the licensee told him that the people in the lounge wero his guests. Counsel for defendant, Mr. M. R. Grierson, said that the people in the hotel were thero on the invitation of Mr. Mclvor, who always had a few friends in on nights when wrestling was being broadcast. All those in the lounge were warm personal friends of Mr. and Mrs. Mclvor, and one of the men found in the ! pubjic bar was a friend of Mr. Mclvor's. The two other men with him were friends of his who had been invited with the permission of Mr. Mclvor. One bottle of beer had been served to each of the men in the lounge during the evening, but they had been supplied by Mr. Mclvor and were not paid for by the guests. The magistrate said that he would not hold that serving liquor to men who wero in a hotel on a sort of second-hand invitation was an act within the law. Tho explanation regarding tho others could perhaps be believed. The whole trouble with them arose from their being in a room so close to the bar, where it was so easy to obtain liquor. It might lead to further trouble. The licensee would be veil advised in tho future to entertain his personal friends in another room. Mr. Grierson intimated that if the magistrate held definitely that a friend of a personal acquaintance of the licensee was not a guest according to the meaning of the Act, he would enter a plea of guilty on behalf of his client. Mr. Levien:. I will not countenance a licensco inviting guests indiscriminately through a friend. Mclvor was convicted and fined £7 10s Eight persons were charged on. summons with being on the premises. Three men who were found in the public -bar were fined £1 10s each. The informations against the others were dismissed.