Sunday Closing Law

SUNDAY CLOSING LAW

Wm. Griffiths, owner and licensee of the Railway Tavern, Tongwynlais, was summoned before the Llandaff magistrates on Monday for three different offences, selling intoxicating liquor to a drunken person, unlawfully permitting drunkenness, and keeping his premises open for the sale of intoxicating liquor on Sunday, May 17th.

Mr St. John Francis Williams defended, and said he had spoken with DeputyChief Constable Giddings, and submitted that, subject to the withdrawal of the first two charges, his client was prepared to plead guilty to the third. To this the deputy-chief had agreed, subject to the approval of the Bench.

Mr St. John Francis Williams said that a man and his son came to the house about five o’clock on the Sunday evening. They stopped half an hour and had two glasses of beer each, stating that they came from Caerphilly. Just before they left the son, who was afterwards fined for drunkenness, said that his father had recently been ill and wanted to be supplied with 9d worth of whisky to take away with him.

This was sold by Mrs Griffiths who, Mr Williams said, was ignorant of the fact that it was illegal to sell liquor to a bona fide traveller for consumption off the premises. The defendant could bring witnesses to prove that when they left the Railway Tavern they were quite sober. The offence, committed in ignorance by Mrs Griffiths, was, he added, purely a technical one, and he therefore urged that only a nominal fine be imposed. The Bench dismissed the first two cases, and inflicted a nominal fine of 10s and costs in the third.

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