DRINKING AT DANCES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 655, 6 May 1929, Page 1

DRINKING AT DANCES

MAGISTRATE WARNS LICENSEE POLICE VOICE ALARM (Special to THE SUN) MARTON, To-day. Reference to the amount of drinking which goes on at some dances nowadays was made in the Marton Police Court by Constable Thompson, when a set of prosecutions for licencing breaches were before Mr. R. M. Watson, S.M. “Drinking goes on to a very large extent outside dances, and unfortunately there is no law to prevent it,” he said. “Women and girls must be protected, qnd when the police find young men in their teens can go to a hotel late at night and drink beer by the gallon it is a serious matter.” The dance to which the constable referred particularly was one held at Marton Junction on April 19. Four youths had admitted going to the Railway Hotel for a drink, and when the police went to the hotel next evening to see the licensee they found three men on the premises. The outcome was the appearance of the licensee, Thomas Davin, in court to answer in all 12 charges relating to the two nights concerned. The magistrate said that only in July last Davin was fined £lO at Lower Hutt for a similar offence, and when he went into the Railway Hotel he (the magistrate) warned defendant to avoid after-hours’ trading. A conviction was entered on each charge. The fines totalled £35, costs amounted to £6 2s. With reference to being on licensed premises on the night of April 19, JT. O’Shaughnessy, O. Gibbons, E. Neumann, and D. J. Sinclair were each fined £2 with costs, while W. Conder, j Irving and A. E. Anderson were similarly fined for being on the premises on the night of April 20.