THE LICENSING ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14279, 30 July 1908, Page 7

THE LICENSING ACT.

o . CHARGES OF PERMITTING DRUNKENNESS. (Pes United Pxess Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, July 29. In the Magistrate's Court to-day, before Mr Fitzherbert, S.M., the licensee of tho Taranaki Hotel pleaded "Not guilty" to a charge of permitting drunkenness on his licensed premises on June 13. Evidence was given to the offect that three prominent local residents spent a day at tho hotel, most of tho time in a bedroom, from which they were taken away by friends and the polico. respectively, the latter alleging that tho men were intoxicated. For the defence, it was contended that tho men wero not drunk, and that nq drink was supplied in the bedroom in which the champagne bottles were found by the police one at least bearing the label of another hotel, ono witness alleging it had been sent out for. His Worship said it was necessary for a, conviction that these people should he drunk, and that ibe hotelkeepor or his servants should know they wero drunk. Tliere was some evidence that one man was drunk. On the evidence before ■him, however, his Worship camo to tho conclusion that neither the licensee nor his servants had any knowledge that this man was drunk. He therefore dismissed the information. It is very probable that, tbe decision will bo appealed against. INVERCARGILL, July 29. John Affleck was charged to-day with permitting jlrunkenness on his licensed premises at Wallacetown, seven miles out of town. The defence was that the alleged drunk man, Henry Powell (owner of tho betel and a former licensee) was not drunk, but, being an old man, had collapsed in tho hotel bar owing to a sudden fit of weakness. Judgment was reserved.