ALLEGED SUNDAY TRADING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8329, 30 September 1898, Page 2

ALLEGED SUNDAY TRADING.

THE CASE DISMISSED.

At the Magistrate's Court this morning Mr Booth, S.M., delivered judgment in the case brought by the police against Jane Sheen, licensee of the Turangumii Hotel, who was charged with selling liquor during prohibited hours. His Worship, in delivering judgment, said : " In this case there is no doubt in my mind that there was a sale. There was a sale of beer in an illegal hour, and that sale was made by a person left in charge. He was the only person that was in charge of the place, and had a key of the bar. When he sold the beer he was undoubtedy representing the landlady. Now as to the law, I have looked carefully into the cases quoted by Mr DeLantour, and more especially the New Zealand case and in the judgment of the Chief Justice, and in the face of that I am afraid that I cannot enter up a conviction against Mrs Sheen. The evidence of several witnesses was to tho effect that the licensee had given strict orders that the bar was not to be open, and no liquor was on any account to be supplied. That is the position of the matter. In my opinion there was a sale made by a person representing the landlady, but she having told him not to open the bar, he was acting contrary to her wishes. The information will therefore be dismissed."

The decision of Chief Justico Prendergast, referred to by Mr Booth, is as follows :— " A licensee is not liable to the penalty imposed for selling liquor on licensed premises during closed hours merely because by his (honest) negligence he has enabled a sale to be made by some person neither expressedly nor impliedly authorised by him to sell. The question, continued the Chief Justice, is whether the person actually soiling had an express or implied authority to sell, not whether the licensee by his negligence or want of vigilance enabled the sale to be made. Neither negligence nor want of vigilance is equivalent to authority."