LIQOUR WITH MEALS.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16814, 4 June 1926, Page 3

LIQOUR WITH MEALS.

A DECISION UPSET. , TIIE MEANING OF “ INMATE.” j The Full Court of New South /Wales differed from the view of Mr .lustier, .lames in regard to his Interpretation of Ihc word ‘'inmate,” under the Liquor Act. in February last Mr Justice Campbell in Chambers referred lo the Lull Court a special ease, staled by Mr A. J. Paisley, S.M.. in connection with a proceeding under the Liquor Act. in October last', on an information laid by Hugh Claude Still, organiser for Ihc Slate Prohibition Alliance., against Randolph Radford, licensee of TatlersaH’s Hotel, Pitt Street, alleging a breach of section r>7 of the AfT, in selling liquor after closing "hours. It now came before diet Chief Justice, Mr Justice Gordon., and Mr Justice Ferguson. The charge had reference to an occasion when a customer in the hotel dining-room was served with a glass of beer with his dinner after (1 o'clock. The magistrate, in dismissing Ihc information, relied upon a passage in the judgment of Mr Justice James, in Chambers, in Hotel Australia and Usher’s Hotel eases. That Judge held that a person taking a room in an hotel must bn regarded as a lodger, and enfilli• (1 to be served with drink, lie also expressed a view as lo Ihc meaning of Hu> word “inmale” in the section following, whip 1 1 the magistrate held that a person who went to a hotel for a meal after six o’clock was an inmate within Hic meaning of ihc Act, and was entitled to be supplied with liquor. The special ease raised the question of the correctness of the magistrate's, and, incidentally, Mr Justice James , interpretation of the section. The appeal was upheld, the Clue! Justice remarking that the court was not concerned with the decisions in l tie cases of ex parte Tighc and ox parte Duncan, except that in the latter case Mr Justice James put an interpretation on the word “inmate.” in the course of 1 1 is judgment the Chict Justice said it was submitted by Mr Lamb that the court should not be put upon I lie word inmate its dictionary meaning, but some wider meaning, sc that citizens dining after C o clock would not tic deprived of Uic right to order liquor with their rhea!. If, said counsel, they were so deprived, il would give, rise lo serious social problems in clubs and elsewhere. With that the court had nothing to do, ils duly being merely lo interpret what I lie'Legislature had said regardless of any inconvenience Hie statutes might create. It. had heen urged by Mr Lamb that, in giving I lie word an interpretation, Hie court should hold it to ho synonymous with “guest," but 1 lie Legislature liaddnploycd the word “guest” in the Act, and, if it bad* intended the word to connote “inmate," it was plain that the intention would have been expressed in unambiguous terms. To interpret the word “inmate” as synonymous with “guest" would he, in his opinion, to do very great violence to its meaning as a word in daily or ordinary use in Ihc English language. The question, to his Honor's mind, was simply one or construction, and a competent knowledge of die English language. He did not think that any possible interpretation of the word could cover a person going to Tatlersall's Hotel merely for his dinner. By consent, it was decided not lo remit Hie case to die magistrate for 21 days. a