A SEVERE RULING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 834, 1 March 1906, Page 23

A SEVERE RULING.

In a recent Court case at Feilding, which is reported elsewhere, the Magistrate ruled that the fact of a person being found drunk on any licensed premises would be sufficient to convict the licensee <'f those premises. In the case at Feilding the defence was that the man had not been supplied with any drink in the ihotel, but had arrived drunk from another ihotel. No doubt the Magistrate meant his remarks to carry a certain amount of qualification in conjunction with surrounding circumstances. To interpret his ruling strictly would leave hotelkeepers at the mercy of every inebriate who invaded their premises. A result would that convictions would be more plentiful and easy to obtain. With the many pitfalls and dangers that now surround 'hotelkeepers, the time is not far distant ; when a licensee will have to add to His sjtaff a sort of shopwalker or patrolman to-patrol his bars and premises, in an endeavour to keep out persons the worse for "liquor and prohibited persons. An employee with a knowledge of the latter, persons would be a most valuable acquisition, and> rank equal to the most liberal accident insurance policy that ever was invented.

A schoolboy described a dirge as t'p -ong a chap sings when he is dear"