ILLEGAL ON SUNDAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 August 1935, Page 9

ILLEGAL ON SUNDAYS

BULK SUPPLY OF BENZINE MAGISTRATE GIVES DECISION. PETROL STATION REPLENISHING. “WAS NOT A WORK OF NECESSITY.” A reserved judgment of considerable interest concerning a recent case at Stratford, when three men were charged with Sunday trading in connection with benzine supplies to petrol stations, was delivered by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., at the court at New Plymouth yesterday. B. E. Kivell, manager of a bulk petrol depot at Stratford, was convicted on a charge of Sunday trading, R. A. Robertson, driver of a tank waggon; was convicted of working at his calling on a Sunday, and G. E. Walker, service station proprietor, New Plymouth, was convicted of aiding and abetting Robertson. All three were fined £1 and costs. The defence raised by Mr. N. H. Moss at the hearing at Stratford was that the supplying of benzine on that particular Sunday was one of necessity. Mr. Woodward held, however, that there was no necessity from the point of view of the public, but merely a business advantage to the three concerned. That business had been transacted on a Sunday was due to an abnormally heavy demand on the Saturday, to meet which the quantity supplied on the Friday was inadequate, said Mr. Woodward. The case was one of emergency, the circumstances being due to a rumour that the price was to be raised on the Monday. Concerning the defence’s submission that the replenishment of the petrol tank was thus a work of necessity, the magistrate held that the necessity was not from the public point of view but from that of the . bulk store and ’service station proprietors. The public could, at little inconvenience, have obtained petrol of other brands from other stations in the, vicinity, and at rather greater inconvenience the same brand in another part of the town. The alleged necessity was therefore no more than the business advantage of the defendants. All three would have to be convicted, although the case did not seem to warrant a heavy penalty. Mr. A. G. Anderson, for Mr. N. H. Moss, Stratford, submitted that all three had acted in ignorance and had had no intention of defeating the Act.