SEIZED BEER

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1932, Page 5

SEIZED BEER

MAORI OWNERS’ DILEMMA. FIVE GALLONS GOES TO WASTE. Morrinsville, ■ Nov. 26. The fate of five gallons of beer contained in a keg seized ..by the Morrinsville police at a Maori settlement on October 23 hung in the balance at the Morrinsville Courthouse yesterday. The magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, was asked by the police if he wished to give an order for the beer to be destroyed. The keg was the property of the hotel, but the beer had been paid for by a Maori and taken away from the hotel by a pakeha. Unfortunately for both men, the police followed them and seized the beer after only two glasses had been consumed. Both men were subsequently fined £5 for breaches of the Licensing Act. “I do not think I have power to order the beer to be destroyed,” said the magistrate. If the beer had been paid for it belonged to the Maoris, and they were entitled to take it away from the Court to the hotel and drink it on the licensed premises if they so desired. But they must not drink it outside the hotel, and they must not get drunk, both these acts being offences for Maoris. After the sitting of the Court the owners of the keg took a sample from the keg, but found it tasted like vinegar, having been kept as an exhibit by the police for a month after a little had been drawn off. They said it was no use to them, and eventually the five gallons of . flat : beer was emptied out on the ground, .