LICENSING ACT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20965, 18 February 1938, Page 5

LICENSING ACT

INTERESTING POINTS RAISED DUNEDIN PROSECUTION By Telegraph Pres* Association DUNEDIN, February 17. Interesting points of law were raised by Mr J. M. Paterson, in the Police Court yesterday, when appearing as counsel for Matthew Henry Dawson, who was charged before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., with breaches of the Licensing Act, in connection with a conditional license issued to him for a booth at the Dunedin Jockey Club’s race meeting at Christmas time. The charges were: That defendant failed to comply with the conditions of the said license by allowing women to be in the public booth at Wingatui racecourse, and, further, that he caused liquor to be exposed to certain women. Sergeant Lean, who conducted the case for the prosecution outlined the i conditions under which the conditional license had been issued, certain clauses ( in which prohibited the presenc' in I the booth of women, and of liquor be- I ing consumed there by women. Sergeant Lean contended that the Licensing Committee was given power | under the Act to impose such con- J ditions. Sergeant Forsyth gave evidence re- ! garding interviewing the licensee, prior to the races starting on that day. Witness stated that he had drawn the licensee's particular attention to the conditions concerning women being served, or being allowed in the booth. Later witness visited the booth and saw women hurriedly leaving by the door he entered the booth, and there he found three women, two of whom had apparently been drinking, the glasses held by them containing dregs of port wine. Another woman was standing further away in the booth, with a companion. She did not have a glass in her hand. Witness took the names of the women, who left when requested to i do so. The licensee’s son, who was in I charge of the booth told witness that I no women had been served by his | assistants, and that some women had been sent out of the booth just previously. Charles William Carson, clerk of the Licensing Committee, produced evidence of the issue of the license. Wit- 1 ness said that the conditions referred I to had been included in licenses ever | since he had been here. Mr Paterson said that Dawson has j been a hotel keeper for 45 years and had I never previously been charged with, let, alone convicted of any breach of the Licensing Act. and it was extremely unfortunate that he should now be made the subject of what was, in effect a test case. Dawson would much prefer not to have women on the premises, although he had been informed by a former superintendent of police that the police had no power to keep women out of the booth. Counsel’s Contentions Mr Paterson went on to contend that under the Licensing Act women, unless they were of ill-repute had just as much right to be in a hotel as a rr.an had, and if they were precluded from entering they might have grounds for action for slander. He contended, therefore, that the Licensing Committee had no power to say that women should not be served—that if it did impose such conditions, it was not an offence to create a breach of them—that the section of the act on which prosecution relied did not apply to conditional licenses, and lastly, that even if the offences with which the defendant had been charged, were held to be applicable, he (defendant) had not committed them. Elaborating his argument, Mr Paterson said that the Licensing committee could not make illegal what | was allowed by the act. To reduce the matter to an absurdity, it might be decreed that no person under 30 should be supplied with liquor, or no person with grey hair should be so supplied. A conditional license holder could be charged with offences against public order, with illicit selling or selling adulterated liquor, but Dawson was not so charged. The charges made did not disclose any offences with which the defendant could be legally charged. With regard to the charge of allowing women to be on the premises, said Mr Paterson, it must be proved that they were there with the permission of the defendant, or with his approval. There must be connivance. The Magistrate: Was not a son in charge? Mr Paterson: This is not a case where responsibility is delegated to an employee. In regard to the charg. of exposing, added Counsel, is must be proved that the liquor was not only exposed, but exposed for sale. After evidence had been given by Leslie Gerald Hill secretry of the Dunedin Jockey Club, concerning the area occupied by the booth, and by Matthew Fabian Dawson, son of the licensee, the Magistrate said that the conditions mentioned had been in conditional licenses for something like 20 years, but apparently of late years a certain amount of latitude had been allowed, so that these conditions had become something like a dead-letter. The validity of these conditions ha. ng been questioned by counsel, he would take time to go into the matter. THEFT AND ASSAULT NATIVE’S OFFENCES By TelegrapU—P rpKS association NAPIER, February 17 When the jury returned a verdict of guilty of assaulting his wife and causing actual bodily harm, Martin Wharewhiti, a native, altered his pleas to guilty on two other charges, theft and breaking and entering with intent. He was remanded for sentence.