LAW OF THE DRY AREA.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1400, 6 September 1923, Page 5

LAW OF THE DRY AREA.

THE TWO GALLON LIMIT. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WAIHI, Wednesday. “Don’t mix your drinks,” was the advice given by the magistrate (Mr J. H. Salmon, S.M.) during the hearing of a no license case in the Magistrate’s Court to-day when several residents were charged with breaches of the Act, in that they brought liquor into a no license area without first giving the prescribed notice to the vendor that such liquor was intended for consumption in a no license area. According to the Act any such person can bring into a no license area (without such notice to the vendor) either one quart- of spirits or one gallon of beer, but, according to the magistrate’s opinion, you cannot mix your drinks. In other words, if you have one gallon of beer, and say, one pint of spirits in your possession without having followed t'he prescribed regulations you have committed a breach of the Licensing Act. Hence His Worship’s advice to defendants appearing before him to-day "not to mix their drinks.” The above charges arose out of an investigation made by the local police in regard to liquor being brought by passengers in a train coming to Waihi from a no license area. The defendants were of opinion that they were entitled to bring the full prescribed quantity of both beer and spirits together, but the magistrate’s interpretation of the clause dealing with the matter showed that they had erred in ignorance. Defendants were convicted and ordered to pay costs, the magistrate agreeing that only a technical breach had been committed.