LEGAL & MAGISTERIAL NOTES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XI, Issue 529, 20 September 1900, Page 19

LEGAL & MAGISTERIAL NOTES

The licensee of the Railway Refreshment Rooms at Aramoho, was fined £5, with 17s costs, for selling liquor to a child under thirteen, who said she wanted it for her mother who was ill. At the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington. Mary Edith McGregor, lately barmaid at Searle’s Hotel, was committed for trial on a charge of having stolen £6 Is, moneys belonging to the hotel. The evidence showed that the proprietor had a suspicion that money was being abstracted from the till, and the present charge was laid in consequence of specially marked coins being found in the girl’s private boxes. The girl denied .having taken the money, and offered to pay the whole amount missing.

A case of some considerable interest to licensed victuallers and caterers, occupied the Timaru Magistrate’s Court one day last week. Before the Easter encampment at Timaru, Colonels Gordon and Bailey, and Captain Palairet, met and made arrangements with Mr Reilly to run the canteen at the encampment, and with Mr Budd to do the catering. After both these gentlemen had set to work to prepare the camp, the arrangements were altered and both canteen and catering given to aMr Burke. Result, Mr Reilly claimed £2OO for alleged damages for breach of contract, and Mr Budd claimed £l4B 9s 7d. The magistrate, in giving judgment, held that the defendants were not acting as servants of the Crown, and there was no defence on that ground. He gave judgment for Reilly in the canteen case for £B6, and for Budd, caterer, for £4O. Counsel for defendants said there might be an appeal. At the Magistrate’s Court, Wanganui, Bessie Fleming, of the Aramoho Railway Refreshment Rooms, was charged with selling whisky to a child under the age of 13 years, on the 24th July. Defendant pleaded guilty. Evidence was given by Blanche Fleming to the effect that she served in the refreshment rooms, sometimes at the bar. Remembered the girl coming for the liquor. She asked for Is worth of the best case whisky for her mother, who was ill. Went into the bar and asked for a Is worth of the best whisky forjthe woman who was ill. Obtained it and handed it to the child, who took it away. In giving judgment, Mr H. Eyre-Kenny, S.M., said the case was one in which the defendant had not only broken the law, but had also sold to a child, which the law had made a grave offence. He inflicted a fine of £5 with costs 17s, remarking that the young girl should not be serving in the bar. At the Central Criminal Court, on the 31st July, before Mr Justice G. B. Simpson, Henry Keenan, John Wilson, and Henry Smith Collis were charged that they did on June 20, amongst themselves, conspire together to defeat the provisions of the Distillation Act, 1897 ; and further, they were charged with conspiring together to cheat Her Majesty the Queen of divers large sums of money. The jury found a verdict of guilty against all the accused upon the first count His Honour said he would punish them in the same way as they probably would have been punished if they had been proceeded against for the direct offence of using an illicit still. They were each ordered to pay a fine of £lOO ; if the fine be not paid, each to be imprisoned at Darlinghurst for a term of six months. At the Gisborne Police Court, on Friday last, before Mr W. A. Barton, S.M., an elderly man named John Perston, a fisherman, pleaded guilty to having procured liquor for a prohibited person. His Worship commented strongly upon the conduct of the defendant in supplying a prohibited person with drink,pointing outthat the provisions of the Act were rendered ineffectual by this practice. One man he had recently made an order against had told him that it was practically useless, as he could obtain what drink he wanted. He (the Magistrate) intended that this should not be the case, and he would do his utmost to bring about a better state of things. He would impose a fine of £5, and costs 9s, in default 30 days’ imprisonment.