THE LICENCING LAWS.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 13

THE LICENCING LAWS.

OASES AT LOWER HUTT.

WELLINGTON, December 7. At ths Lower Rutt to-day several alleged breaches of the licensing ■ laws were' heaTd by the -Stipendiary Magistrate. In one case a constable entered an hotel at 4.45 on '-Sunday afternoon and found local residents sitting iv a room. One ' man said he was waiting -for tea, but as tbe constable said he would take his name whether he had tea or not he went away. No "drink was served. In another case a man remained in an hotel for 20 minutes after the- bar closed, talking to two boarders. He had no drink. Judgment was reserved in both cases. In a case where two men who were 1 residents in the district had been served . with dri»k on Sunday there was a conflict ;of evidence. The men said they had not • been asked if they vere travellers. The liarmau and wife cf the licensee swore they ; had been asked, and had said they were. j This charge was dismissed The two men j were afterwards fined 40s each — one for j entering an hotel while he was prohibited, I and the other for accompanying a pro- | hibited person on to licensed premises.

ON THE PREMISES AFTER HOURS. At Middlemarch, on Tuesday, beiore Mr M'Ennis, S.M., I Thomas M'C.lintock pleaded " Guilty " to a charge of being found after 10 p.m. on the licensed premises of the Railway Hotel, at Middlemarch, on November 16. "* '

Mr Hjorring, of Naseby, who appeared for accused, submitted, under section 42 -of the aofc of 1904, that if he was able to show a -reasona-ble cause for the man being on the premises a conviction could not follow. This view was upheld by the magistrate. Evidence was then adduced to prove that accused and others were on the premises of the hotel for some time after the legal closing hour; that they had no drink after 10 o'clcck ; that ihey did not know the act was in force; and that they were there in order to avoid meeting some persons under the influence of drink who were in the hotel yard. The Magistrate, having regard to the facts that accused did not wish to come in contact with others in the yard, and also that he did not know the act was- in force, dismissed the information. Three other informations against persons found in the hotel at the same time as M'Clintook were dismissed or withdrawn.