SPINSTERS' BALL AND SLY GROG.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15603, 5 November 1912, Page 8

SPINSTERS' BALL AND SLY GROG.

A DISGUSTING KXIUBITIOX

(Fiiom Our Own CoiuiEsrotiDENT.)

OAMARU, November 4.

An illicit .liquor ca.se with some extraordinary feature <xviipiwl the attention of the stipendiary magistrate (.Mr T. Jltitcbisou) to-day. : , George Strimtcr, a young inan, » resident, of Herbert, was charged firstly with having sold liquor within the no-license district of Oamaru, and secondly with having given an order for liquor without giving the names ami jwldresses of thofi for whom it wafl ordered. A plea of not guilty was entered in each case.

The evidence showed that on the 21st of August tut invitation ball was given at Herbert by the benedicts and spinsters, and 22 bachelors subscribed one shilling each for a supply of beer. The liquor was ordered in the name of the defendant, wilit his authority, and on receipt whr taken to the scene of the ball and locked up in an outbuilding. Thither the "shareholders" in the beer repaired on many occasions during the progress of the function, with tlie result that several bteamc intoxicated, and a disturbance arose in tho supper room, obscene language being used. A.s a consequence several of the participants, including th.i defendant, were sub. sequently charged at the Hampden Court and lined for their misbehaviour, The local constable thereupon interviewed the defendant with respect to the liquor, and defendant said lie had not ordered it nor authorised anyouo to do so in his name. In tlie box to-day, however. Stringer admitted that ho had authorised a man named Thomas Woodford to send the order in his name.

"Then why did you write to the people wlhj sent the l>oer saying that the order was a forgery?'' asked Sergeant Stagponle.

To this defendant replied that ho had done so tacausc lie was going to be prosecuted for sly grog-selling.

The caretaker of the building said he did not know where the liquor w;is coming from that affected the pooplc, and he did not inquire, as it- was a common thing to sec people drunk at such functions. There was a regulation that no liquor was to l>e brought on to the premises, and to this he always called the attention of lessees, hut unless the breach of it was flagrant, lie was inclined to wink at it. He could conscientiously say that lie had been a total abstainer for close upon 40 years. " With liberal tendencies," remarked" his Worebip, who questioned several of the other witnesses as to what they did with their partners when they were " beering up," ami generally got the answer that they left them in the hall or under the care of others.

Altogether tlie evidence disclosed what his Worship rightly described as a disreputable and disgusting state of matters at a dance of the kind. He did not think that there was sufliciont evidence to justify a conviction on the first charge. The second charge and the circumstances were such that he could not look upon it as a simple offence. Ho imposed a fine of £5, with costs (29s 6d).