THE HOTELKEEPER’S PERIL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 996, 8 April 1909, Page 20

THE HOTELKEEPER’S PERIL.

The evidence in the case which was brought against the licensee of the Royal George Hotel, Newmarket, on Friday, sheds a vivid light upon the perilous position of the hotelkeeper where he has unscrupulous customers to deal with. In the Royal George case it was shown that Mr Farquhar’s endeavours to enforce order and good conduct in his hotel resulted in three

men, who had evidently determined to have a rowdy afternoon, being locked up. The plain reading of their offence was that they had been guilty of wanton misbehaviour, and that, in their excitement, they wished to pass speedily from the stage of being customers in, to that of being masters of, the house. A plea of drunkenness was practically put into their mouths, and was almost immediately adopted by them, in the hope, no doubt, that it would lighten the punishment, which was as certain as it was justly deserved. In spite of the evidence to the contrary, the drink plea was given credence to, with the result that a charge of permitting drunkenness on licensed premises was brought against Mr. Farquhar. This charge was dismissed, the evidence being of such a character that there was not the shadow of a hope of sustaining it, as the only persons advancing any evidence of drunkenness were the offenders themselves. We cannot but congratulate the licensee upon his escape from an extremely awkward position—one in which, although he was the aggrieved party, it was made to appear that he was responsible for the misdoings of his awkward customers. * * * * A SERIOUS CONSIDERATION. The peril before him was a serious one, and bordered actually on the disastrous. Had the charge been sustained, the house would probably have lost its license in June, because Newmarket, being situated in the Parnell electorate, which carried Reduction at the General Election, is liable to be deprived of one of its licensed houses, and houses the licenses of which are endorsed, are always the first sacrificed. There is no option but to take the license of such houses away when reduction is carried. We do not for a moment suggest that presiding magistrates do not give every case before them all the consideration which is computable with justice, but we do think that when a decision in one case may become the basis for the prosecution of others, then the evidence in the first should be of such convincing nature as to leave no shadow of doubt in its trail. In the cases just heard, the very essence of the prosecution of tne hotelkeeper was in the reliability or otherwise of the evidence in the 'first case. How reliable that evidence was is revealed in the hearing of the second case, which, we may remark, was heard by a different magistrate. The fact of the magistrate accepting the plea of drunkenness in the first case precluding him from hearing the second, his acceptance in the one would be tantamount to a conviction in the second. We cannot refrain from again emphasising the fact of the peril in which hotelkeepers are standing, when pleas in mitigation may result in serious consequences. In the Royal George case, a conviction would have meant the losing of the license, a hardship which would have been keenly felt by the licensee and owner, as it would have resulted in the one instance of a monetary loss and loss of means of livelihood, and in the other a very considerable reduction in the value of property, and all against that would be the desire of three men to escape punishment for their wrongdoings.

Mr. V. B. G Lesina, a member of the Queensland Labour party who has been in the State Parliament for the last ten years is visiting New Zealand, with the view of preparing a special report on the “ No-license ” question, and is also noting the effect of the Licensing laws. Having visited the Ashburton, Oamaru. Invercargill and Balclutha districts, which are the strongholder of the Temperance party in the south, Mr. Lesina is puzzled at the facility with which drink can be obtained in these places. He is finding out, as others have found before him. that Prohibition does not prohibit.