THE LICENSING ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20323, 3 February 1928, Page 8

THE LICENSING ACT.

INTERESTING APPEAL CASE.

WHEN IS A BAR NOT A BAB?

(Special ro Dailt Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 2.

When is a bar not a bar? w&s an interesting question raised in the Supreme Court to-uay before Mr Justice Adams in an appeal by the police against the decision of Mr H. P. Lawry, 8.M., in a Licensing Act case. Constable Frederick Walter Edwards was cited as the appellant, and was represented by Mt A. T. Donnelly. Claude H. Piper, licensee of the Clarendon Hotel, was the respondent, and for him Mr R. A. Cuthbert appeared. Mr Donnelly said that the magistrate had dismissed an information against Piper, who was charged with employing Stella Cadigan to serve in a bar .when she was not a licensed barmaid. On the night of August 19, 1927, a boarder at the hotel named Bailey ordered drinks for himself and friends who were visiting him. Mrs Cadigan was the manageress of the hotel, and was in charge when the licensee was away. The porter went to Mrs Cadigan, who went into the private bar to get the drinks. The police arrived when Mrs Cadigan was in the private bar with the drinks on the counter. In dismissing the charge, Hie magistrate held that the sale of liquor waa to the lodger and not to any member of the public, and therefore the bar was not open for the sale of liquor within the meaning of the Act. Mr Donnellv submitted that the bar was open for tha sale of liquor, that an actual sale of liquor was made, and that Mrs Cadigan nad opened the bar and made the sale of liquor. Therefore she had committed an offence as she was not a registered barmaid. Mr Cuthbert said that only two of the employees were in the bar at the time, and the drinks were to be taken by the porter to a boarder and his guests in tha smoke room. He held that once a bar was closed at the time set out in the law and was not accessible to the public it ceased to be a bar, but became a pantry or storeroom for liquor. His Honor reserved his decisicb-