THE BONA FIOE FRAVELLER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 54

THE BONA FIOE FRAVELLER.

WELLINGTON, December 3. The Cabinet has decided that a test case, or test cases, shall be taken by the polio* to determine the position of the bona- fide traveller. The inspectors of police will act accordingly. The section in the act passed last session dealing with the bona fide traveller is No. 38, and it reads: — "Subsection 5 of section 22 of 'The Amendment Act, 1895,' is hereby repealed so far as the same relates to travellers." The subsection referred to repealed section 156 of "The Licensing Act, 1881," which provided: — "Nothing in this act shall preclude an innkeeper who is licensed to sell liquor to be consumed ou the premises from selling such liquor at any time to bona fide travellers or to persona lodging in his house." The subsection repealed by this year's act substituted restrictions regarding supplying bona fid© travellers, and did not make it obligatory on the hotelkeeper to supply liquor. But neither section 38 of this year's act nor subsection 5 of section 22 of the 1€95 act repealed section 157 of the 1881 act, which also refers to the bona fide traveller, and provides for the procedure in any proceedings taken against " any innkeeper for infringing the provisions of this act relating to closing." • The concluding portion of this section reads as follows:— "A person, for the purposes of this act, shall not be deemed to be a bona fid© traveller unless the place where he lodged during, the preceding " night is at least three miles ' distant from the place where he demands to be supplied with liquor, 'such distance to be calculated by the nearest public thoroughfare." The bona fide traveller is -mentioned in section 42 of this year's act, which " provides: — " (1) Every person found on licensed premises at any time when such premises are required by the Licensing Acts to be closed is liable to a fine not exceeding two pounds, unless he satisfies the court that he was an inmate, servant, or -lodger on such premises, or a bona fide traveller, or that otherwise his presence on such premises was not in breach of the provisions of the Licensing Acts with respect to the closing of licensed premises."