Bear v Lynch [1909] HCA 31

592 HIGH COURT [1909.

(HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.)

BEAR . ¥ ' ' x F 3 . APPELLANT; CoMPLAINANT, . AND LYNCH . c 5 ' 3 ; 4 . RESPONDENT. DEFENDANT,

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF ° NEW SOUTH WALES.

H.C. or A. Liquor (Amendment) Act (N.S.W.), (No. 40 of 1905), sees. 17, 19—Person found

1909. on licensed premises during prohibited hours—Liability of licensee—* Lanful —— purpose "—Mene rea. Sypyey, rie The Liquor (Amendment) Act 1905, by sev. 17, provides that any person found May 17, 2i. on licensed premises at any time when the premises should not be open for the ; sale of liquor shall be liable to a penalty unless he was at the time a bond fide orconno lodger, servant, inmate, or traveller, or was not on the premises "in contra- snacs 33.

vention of the provisions of this Act." Sec. 19, by sub-sees. (1), (2) and (3), empowers a police officer to make inquiries of any person found on licensed premises at such a time as to his name and address, and in certain cases to arrest him without warrant, and sub-sec. (4) provides that a licensee upon whose premises any person is so found shall, unless he proves that such person

was there "for a lawful purpose," be liable to a penalty.

A person who was not a lodger, servant, inmate or traveller, was found by the police on licensed premises during prohibited hours playing cards with a lodger for money. 'The only prohibition in either the Principal Liquor Act 1893 or the Amending Act of 1905 with reference to card playing is in sec, 46 of the former Act, which makes it an offence for a licersee to suffer gaming for stakes or any unlawful game to be carried on on his premises. In a prose- cution of the licensee for an offence under sec. 19, sub-sec. (4), it was proved that the livensee had no knowledge of the presence of the stranger on his premises.