POLICE VISIT TO DANCE HALL

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIV, Issue 22738, 12 November 1943, Page 6

POLICE VISIT TO DANCE HALL

i Two Men Charged Magistrate Dismisses Case Complaints regarding disorderly conduct at the West End Park while dances were in progress resulted in the police visiting the dance hall on the night of October 9. As the outcome of this visit, William Fraser, a storeman, and Albert Laurence Hoare, a soldier, appeared at the Magistrate’s Court, Timaru, yesterday, before Mr H. Morgan, S.M., on the double charge of having liquor under their control in the vicinity of the West End Dance Hall while a dance was in progress, and of behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place. Both men pleaded not guilty. Sergeant D. R. Sugrue said that complaints had been received regarding disorderly conduct near the West End Dance Hall and the police visited the hall on the night of October 9 at 10.50 p.m. As the police car approached the dance hall they saw four men leaving the hall. Fraser staggered in front of the car and he was singing and shouting in a disorderly manner. The police followed the four men, who were by this time grouped together in the driveway, and a bottle of beer was beside them. When the police car had driven along the driveway there were no bottles there, as the lights of the car would have shown them, but when the police returned after having been to the hall they found the beer bottle alongside the men. Fraser gave evidence that he went to the dance hall with his wife. He denied that he consumed any liquor at the hall, but had three handles of beer during the afternoon. He did not see the bottle of beer in the driveway until the constable picked it up. Hoare gave evidence similar to that of Fraser. Mr Morgan said the fact that two of the men ran away when the Police arrived made it look as though these men were the guilty parties, whereas Fraser and Hoare stood their ground. The beer could have been left by the men who ran away. “Proof must be given that the defendants had the control of this liquor,” said the Magistrate, “and the evidence given does not satisfy me in this regard.” With reference to the charge of disorderly conduct, the Magistrate considered that, while the conduct of the defendants may have been boisterous, he did not think it amounted to being disorderly. The charges against Fraser and Hoare were dismissed.