SALE OF WHISKY IN NORWAY

Southland Times, Issue 23781, 31 March 1939, Page 5

SALE OF WHISKY IN NORWAY

OFFICERS’ REPLY TO MAGISTRATE VISIT BY MR ORR WALKER RECALLED AUCKLAND, March 30. Customs in Norway must have changed since Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., visited the country some years ago. A dialogue in the Magistrate’s Court this morning between the Magistrate and an officer of a Norwegian ship now in port indicated that whisky is now much more easily obtained there than in the past. Three young seamen, Amid Nygard, Sigurd Hausen and John Olsen, belonging to the crew of the Norwegian ship Norvind, were placed in the Magistrate’s Court dock on a charge of disorderly behaviour while drunk in Karangahape road last night. They pleaded guilty. Senior-Sergeant Caldwell said the three sailors made a nuisance of themselves in a dance hall last night by dancing together in the middle of the floor. They were put outside, where they continued their antics in Karangahape road. They had been drinking whisky and were drunk and were arrested. An officer from the ship told the Magistrate that the three seamen were of good behaviour on board the Norvind. “There is no whisky in Norway, is there?” asked the Magistrate. The officer (with emphasis): Oh, yes sir, there is plenty. (Laughter.) Mr Orr Walker: Well, when I was there it was very hard to obtain. They used to give you whisky and sell you soda water to go with it. (Laughter.) I must say I noticed little or no drunkenness while I was in Norway. As a matter of fact, the only drunk person I saw there was a British “Jack Tar.” (More laughter.) In reply to the Magistrate, the officer said that if the men were placed aboard their ship they could be dealt with for the trouble they had got into. “Very well,” said Mr Orr-Walker, “I won’t send them to see what a New Zealand gaol is like. I will order them to come up for sentence if called upon within one month.”