THE LICENSING ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15954, 23 December 1913, Page 6

THE LICENSING ACT.

<s» EMPLOYMENT OF UNLICENSED BARMAID. A TEST CASE. (Per United Press Association*.) NAPIER, December 22. An interesting judgment was delivered at the court this morning by Mr S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., in the case in which the police took action against Edward M'Ginty, licensee of the Provincial Hotel, for employing an unlicensed barmaid. At the hearing, the facts that the young woman was unlicensed and that she was employed were admitted, and the question for the magistrate to determine was: "Is the place open for the sale of liquor i bar within the meaning of section 4 of the Licensing Act? His Worship visited the hotel and found there were two places for the sale of liquor, one abutting on Clive square and partly on Emerson street. In the latter case there was a door on to the street, but this was always kept locked, and the entrance to the bar could only be made from the inside by means of a passage or two doors. His Worship said that, keeping in view the structure of the place, its proximity to two streets, and the structure of a recess between it and the highway, he had no difficulty in deciding that the place used by defendant for the sale of liV'ior was a bar within the meaning of the Act, and it having been open for the sale of liquor at a time when defendant had employed in his private bar an unregistered barmaid, a conviction must ensue. This care was, however, a test one, he said, and one that reasonably called for interpretation. The defendant would be convicted and fined one shilling. There would, of course, be no order as to costs or an endorsement.