BEER IN DANCE HALL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19890, 18 March 1939, Page 18

BEER IN DANCE HALL

NOT BREACH OF ACT NO SALE TO PUBLIC POLICE CHARGE FAILS (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Dance patrons drinking beer in the Peace Memorial Hall of North Beach on the evening of March 6, while soft drink and ice cream were offered for sale on the premises, did not constitute a breach of the Sale of Liquor Restriction Act, according to a reserved judgment given by Mr. E.. C. Levvey, S.M. The case was that in which the police charged William Eugene Stafford Furby with permitting liquor to be consumed in a restaurant when licensed premises were required to be closed. Furby pleaded not guilty. The allegation of the prosecution that the selling of soft drinks and ice creams brought the matter within the ’ section, broke entirely new ground, said the magistrate. The police alleged that the premises were a restaurant and that, accordingly, the sale of soft drinks and Ice cream'constituted the sale of food or iefreshments of any kind. The defence claimed that this was not so, as no general business of a restaurant was carried cn and that there was no supplying to the general public. In his opinion, added the magistrate, the point at issue was whether there was supplying' to the general public or only to such patrons of the dance who happened to attend the hall. He considered that there had been no sale to the general public, either of food or refreshments, as specified by the Sale of Liquor Restrictions Act, and he had decided that the charge should be dismissed