ALLEGED SLY-GROG.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1923, Page 8

ALLEGED SLY-GROG.

- "A MOKAU "WHISKEY DEAL. _ ' A COSTLY CONSIGNMENT, When the police talk about Mokau il id almost a certainty that a deal in whiskey has prompted t’he remark, and one resident in that area has good cause to remember at least the cost of one particular consignment. It comprised only a single case of whiskey, but it involved George Ferguson in a charge of forgery, and, later, a series of charges to the effect that he ordered the whiskey without giving his full rame and address, that as a carrier he had the whiskey amongst his load without being in possession of the necessary copy of the order, with keeping liquor for sale in a proclaimed area, and with keeping the whiskey in store for one A. Hoskin.

Ferguson stood his trial at the last sessions of the Supreme Court on the charge of forging Hoskin s name to the order and was acquitted. Yesterday he appeared before Mr. A. M. Mowlem, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth and pleaded not guilty to the other charges. Mr. R. H. Quilliam acted as his counsel. These charges arose out of the same set of circumstances which surrounded the alleged forgery case. At the time, in June last, Ferguson was driving the mail coach over Mt. Messenger and obtained a case of whiskey in Hoskins' name’in order to treat the Tongaporutu football team after one of their matches. He maintained that, others were buying the whiskey and the order was made out for ‘‘A* Hoskin and Company.” When trouble threatened, Ferguson said the others denied all knowledge of the transaction and he had to pay for the whiskey, though yesterday, and at the hearing of the other charge in the lower and in the Supreme Court, several of the men of Tongaporutu admitted having lent their assistance in sending the whiskey the customary way. All denied having bought whiskey from the accused. Four of the dozen bottles Were emptied on the night the case arrived at Tongaporutu, and Ferguson hid seven of the balance in the stable, but in the morning they were gone. He reported the fact to Constable Blaikie, of Mokau, and his enquiries led to the laying of the charges heard yesterday. The evidence given yesterday was practically the same as that given in the Supreme Court, but yesterday the accused entered the box in support of his story.

Addressing the Court, Mr. Quilliam stressed the point that the accused had given the whiskey to the men at Tongaporutu. Those men were his potential customers if the accused was guilty of keeping the liquor for salp, in which case it was hardly likely thgt he would give away four bottled. He further Emphasised the fact that Ferguson had reported the theft to Constable Blaikie, and argued that that fact also supported his contention of innocence in the transaction. He had to admit carrying the whiskey without a copy of the order, hut up to the time when these charges wore first mentioned’ that was a fairly common thing. The first charge rested on whether it was held that the whiskey belonged to Hoskin, in whose name it was ordered, or to Ferguson.

Mr. Mowlem held that the charges of keeping the liquor for sale and keeping it in store had not been sustained and they would therefore he dismissed. On the first charge accused was convicted ,-tnd fined £1 and ordered to pay costs totalling £l9 13s 9d, and on the second ho was fined £lO and costs 7/-. His Worship drew attention to the strict provisions in the Act regarding the necessity of carriers being in possession of a copy of the order for the liquor and mentioned that it provided for a fine not exceeding £5O for such an offence.