DRINK AT A DANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23863, 14 January 1941, Page 6

DRINK AT A DANCE

LEGAL PROBLEM RAISED SUNDAY MORNING FUNCTION [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] WELLINGTON, Monday Licensees of public dance luills who invited their patrons to continue dancing as their guests after midnight on Saturday? should have their licences cancelled, stated Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Police Court to-day. Such action, he said, was a deliberate attempt to evade the regulations against the drinking of liquor at public dances. The case was one in which William Steven Pearce, aged 47, a carpenter, was charged with having port wine in his possession in a city dance hall while the dance was being held. The defence admitted that Pearco had been found with half a bottle of port wine, but contended that as the time was 12.5 a.m. on Sunday the dance was not a public one, but was a private party. The licence of the hall prohibited the holding of public dances after midnight on Saturdays, and it was the practice of the proprietor to close the doors at midnight and invite the people inside to remain for another hour as his guests. Pearce accordingly pleaded not guilty. The magistrate, however, convicted him and fined him £2. Mr. Stout said there was no evidence to show that the dance was anything but a public dance.