LICENSE GRANTED.

Waikato Times, Volume 101, Issue 16946, 8 November 1926, Page 6

LICENSE GRANTED.

BOOTH AT TE RAPA RACESs POLICE RAISE OBJECTIONS.. A special meeting of the Hamilton Licensing Committee was held this morning lo consider the application of William Jury, a licensee at Cambridge, for a conditional license for a bootli at tho Waikato Racing Club’s meeting at To Rapa on November 13 and 15. Mr Strang, of Hamilton, represented Ihc applicant. The bench consisted of Messrs. Wyvcrn Wilson, S.M. (chairman). G. Parr, W. F. Mason, J. McKinnon, J. R. Fow and R. English. Senior-Sergeant Sweeney, for the police, said that Jury had held the conditional license at the Cambridge races and had had associated with him Messrs. William and Ernest Montgomery of Auckland. The latter two had been convicted twice this year for selling liquor at booths under the cloak of another person's license. There was now a suspicion that Jury was only a dummy for the Montgomery brothers, as the latter two were engaged taking the cash at the Cambridge booth. The manner in which the booth was conducted was not satisfactory from a police point of view, there being 100 many persons, including Maoris, round the bootli under the influence of liquor. Jury had been warned of this, but to no effect. The licensee seemed to he engaged all the time assisting the Montgomerys to collect the cash, and paid no attention to the class of persons who were being supplied with liquor by the staff. Mr J. C. Willis, Inspector of Police, wrote that the police had no objection to dhe granting of the license if Jury ran the business himself, hut would strongly object if lie was associated in any way with Montgomery brothers. Cross-examined by Mr Strang. Senior-Sergeant Sweeney said he had been present at the Agricultural and Pastoral Society’s Show, where Jury had conducted the booth and had been satisfied with the way tho license had been conducted. Jury’s license for that show was granted two days’ prior to the Cambridge races. He believed Jury had run other booths and had never heard of any complaints. Opposition would have been made to Jury being granted the license at the show if it had been known that he would lie associated with Montgomery at Cambridge. He had spoken to Jury and told him there were too many Maoris about the ground under the influence of liquor, and that lie had better be careful. There had been one or two young men lying about the grounds after the races who had been arrested for drunkenness, and the Senior-Sergeant had also seen people carrying away their friends. Mr Strang-said his client had held various licenses for the past three years and had never been convicted of any breaches of the Licensing Act. The only, point to consider was Jury’s association with the Montgomery brothers. The Racing Club had contracted with Montgomery’s, whereby they wfere to run booths at Te Rapa for three years. When Mr Jury applied for a booth at Cambridge he had tendered and was to find his tender accepted- lie had not the necessary equipment and approached an Auckland Arm without success.

He then approached Montgomery, whom he had not seen before and entered into an arrangment whereby Montgomery’s received half the net proceeds on condition that they supplied equipment and staff. All the liquor had been supplied by Jury, who was present the whole time and had done his best to conduct the booth in a proper manner. No duobt there were some people under the influence of liquor. Mr Strang said his client would show that there was no association with Montgomery brothers at this meeting. He would have the equipment supplied by the Racing Club and would make arrangements lor his ov-"i staff. Wm. Jury said that since December, 1925, he had held a license at Cambridge, having owned previous licenses, and had never had any conviction for a breach of the Licensing Act. He had run the Agricultural and Pastoral Show booth, which was his first booth in Hamilton. Jury explained how he had come to be associated with Montgomery at the Cambridge races. Montgomery had to And all the plant and staff and assist in taking of money. He was to get half of the profits. Montgomery had nothing to do with the booth at the show. He remembered Senior-Sergeant Sweeney speaking to him, and referring to the Maoris, some of whom had been drunk, and had told all the barmen not lo serve Maoris without his permission. At the end of the day ho felt quite pleased with the small amount of drunkenness on the premises. He was not associated with Montgomery in Te Rapa. Mr O’Meara, secretary of the Waikato Racing Club, had asked him to accept the license. Several persons who had been present at the Cambridge races testified that they had seen very little drunkenness. Mr E. O'Meara, secretary of the Racing Club, said the club had entered into a three-years’ contract with Rennie and Montgomery Bros., but the agreement had never been feigned. They were to conduct booths for three years from January 1, 1926. They ran booths in Auckland and various districts. The arrangements between the club and Jury were that he, under instructions from his committee, had asked Jury to accept the license. The club would get the plant from Rennie and Montgomery, who had said they were under contract and were morally responsible to help the club and were quite willing for the club to have the use of the plant for nothing for this meeting alone. The club was handing the plant to Jury foi- no charge. After a consultation between the members of the bench it was decided to grant the license, the booth to close at the actual time of the start of tho last race.