Didn’t Doubt Their Word.

Thames Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18599, 7 September 1932, Page 4

Didn’t Doubt Their Word.

Legal exactitude carried to an extreme length produced a laugh at Wednesday’s heai’ing of an alleged breach of the licensing laws with regard to the riverboats, says the Wanganui Chronicle. The chief witness for the prosecution said he had seen liquor paid for and consumed wrongly, but on cross-exam-ination admitted that he had not seen it actually served. Questioned further he remarked that “it looked like whisky,” but could not swear definitely that it was. He was quite sure about the beer, however, as “it had a good head on it, too.” When a bottle of whisky was produced as an exhibit, the magistrate, Mr J. H. Salmon, suggested that it might be as well, strictly speaking, if the contents were shown to be whisky, as such a bottle in such a circumstance had been known to contain other than whisky but having its appearance. So counsel for the

Crown asked for a corkscrew to open the tin stopper. The bottle was opened. Witness had a sniff. Counsel had a sniff. Both agreed that it was whisky. Then one made to pass it up to the magistrate, but he remarked, amid laughter: “I think I can take your word for it.”