RAID ON STILL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 28 (Supplement)

RAID ON STILL.

Father and Son Before the Court. CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION. Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL, February 16. Charges under the Distillation Act were preferred in the Police Court this morning, before Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M., against a Dunstable farmer and his son, as a sequel to a raid by the Collector of Customs (Mr H. S. Cordery) and a party of police on property in Forest Hill Hundred on Sunday, February 4. The elder accused, William Allan Alexander M’Rae, was charged with being the person on whose place was found a still suited for distilling, and with being concerned in unlawfully making spirits. His son, William Robertson M’Rae, appeared on remand on the second charge only. The charge against the accused of being the person on whose place was found a still suited for distilling was withdrawn, as the Crown Prosecutor (Mr H. Macalister) stated that a survey of the locality showed that the still was over the boundary of the senior accused’s property and on a native reserve. . Hugh Sherwood Cordery, Collector of Customs and Inspector of Distilleries, said that on February 2 he visited the locality of M’Rae’s property, accompanied by Sergeant Abel and Constable Nesbit, and found an illicit still. The country in the locality was practically impassable. They followed the general direction of a long disused bush tramway which led through heavy undergrowth. They arrived at 5.45 a.m. and remained until 7 p.m. The still was erected from railway tarpaulins, wire and a few manuka sticks for uprights. It was a thirty or thirty-two-gallon capacity still, with about a dozen casks, four of which contained about 140 gallons of whisky wash. The still was complete and in working order, and the whisky wash was working. A fireplace was made from bricks with a copper set in, and in front was the axle of a vehicle. The still consisted of two ordinary coppers riveted together, on top of which was a stillhead. Witness detailed their visits to the farm and said that an abandoned still site had been found. Senior-Sergeant Packer said, in evidence, that M’Rae, sen., had said he knew nothing of the still and would give £2O if one was found on his property. Witness added that while making a search of the new still he found a bottle of (“Hokonui”) whisky under the fern close to the still. The hearing was adjourned until February 27 and both accused were released on bail.