LICENSING LAW

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20513, 3 September 1936, Page 4

LICENSING LAW

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT By Telegraph press association, HAMILTON, September 2. In a reserved judgment given by Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court today, it was held that a party to the sale of liquor in a proclaimed area was liable to conviction. The judgment arose from an appeal heard at the present sitting, when the police brought an appeal against the dismissal by Mr R. M. Watson, SM. at Taumarunui, of a charge of selling liquor in a proclaimed area. The respondent was Halim Kallil, storekeeper, of Ohura. The Magistrate held that there was no proof that the liquor in question was the property of respondent, and that respondent was doing no more than obliging a purchaser who bought other commodities from him. He obtained the liquor for his client, but did not sell it to him.

In giving judgment, his Honor held that there was ample evidence, as a matter of law, that the respondent had aided and abetted or procured the sale of liquor, and should therefore, by virtue of section 54 of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1927, have been convicted of the principal offence of selling liquor. He added that he thought that section 54 of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1927, should be read in conjunction with section 273 (A) (11), of the Licensing Act, 1903, when such cases were under consideration. The omission in that sub-section to refer specifically to purchase, did not justify, in his view, the inference that purchasers, or their agents, were intended to be excluded from liability. His Honor allowed the appeal without costs, and remitted the case to the Magistrate’s Court for a conviction to be entered accordingly.