HOTEL LICENSEE CHARGED

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1929, Page 7

HOTEL LICENSEE CHARGED

allegedly open after hours.

UNLAWFUL OPENING CONDONED!

Charges of keeping open licensed premises after hours and of exposing liquor for sale after hours made against John Thomas Gardiner, licensee of the Grosvenor Hotel, New Plymouth, were heard in the Police Court before Mr. R. vV. Tate, S.M., yesterday. After the police evidence had been given, Mr. A. A. Bennett, counsel for Gardiner, submitted precedents on the grounds of which he considered no case had been made, and the magistrate reserved his decision. Sergeant McGregor said that on May 18 he visited the hotel, accompanied by Constable Butler, saw a light in the bar and knocked at the door which was opened by a lodger. On entering he saw three men in the bar, two lodgers and a man named Bernard McGinty. The usual liquor was displayed on the shelves and there were empty bottles and glasses on the counter. McGinty, when asked what he was doing there, hesitated and could not answer, but the licensee said he had come to see about a beer pump which was giving trouble. McGinty said the same, but could not tell Sergeant McGregor what was wrong or what he knew about beer pumps. The licensee said the reason McGinty was there was that he had rung up McGinty, senior, the owner of the hotel, who had sent his son to see what the trouble was, continued Sergeant McGregor and McGinty, junior, had confirmed what Gardiner said. On May 20 witness interviewed McGinty, senr., and as a result of what he told him he saw defendant and told him that McGinty denied receiving a telephone message or that he had anything to do with the pump or had ever sent his son. Gardiner then denied ever telling witness he had telephoned McGinty, senr., but said ho had rung his son. To Mr. Bennett the sergeant said he did not think it was the barman who opened the door. There was nothing improper in the fact that he found the outsido door open. Constable Butler gave evidence on the same lines regarding the visit to the hotel and Constable Mitchell regardin"

the sergeant’s subsequent interview, with Gardiner. Mr. Bennett submitted authorities which stated that a sale of liquor after hours to a lodger accompanied by others was permissible if the sale was paid for by the lodger, and in the same way the exposure of liquor to a lodger after hours was permissible in spite of others being present.

Senior-Sergeant McCrorie protested that there had been an unlawful sale to a person unlawfully on the premises but the magistrate Considered that, accepting all the police evidence as true, the authorities quoted meant to say that if the bar was open and liquor exposed and sold to someone lawfully on the premises the lawful opening and exposure condoned any unlawful opening and exposure to anyone unlawfully present at the time. He did. not think the case need go any further .but he would take time to consider the case from, the point of view put forward by the defence.