MEALS AND BEDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 95, 24 August 1942, Page 5

MEALS AND BEDS

RIGHTS OF TRAVELLERS LICENSEES' OBLIGATIONS The provision of meals and accommodation for travellers at any time is mandatory, according to the statute, upon every holder of an hotel or inn-keeper's license. The question of the obligation of licensees to supply meals was raised some time ago at a* meeting of a Licensing Committee in Taranaki and the chairman of the committee made' it plain then that the provision of meals was part of the condition of a publican's license. The question has again been raised recently through the allegation of some travellers of being refused a meal or accommodation at a Taranaki hotel. The point was referred to Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M., recently, at New Plymouth, and as chairman of the Licensing Committee he said that the Act made it mandatory upon licensees to provide accommodation and meals to travellers. He quoted the Act, which says that any licensee who refuses lodging, meals or accommodation to travellers, except i'or some valid reason, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of £10 upon conviction. The jiro-viso is made that the traveller demanding

a meal or accommodation must "come in a situation in which lie is fit to be received."

Authority on Law, Mr Woodward quoted from the book of Mr J. H- Lux Ford. S.M., of Wellington, on the New Zealand Liquor Laws, in which the author says: "This obligation is declaratory of the common law obligation of an inn-keeper, if he has accommodation available, to receive and procure food for a traveller" . . . And he adds: "An inn is a house, the owner of which holds out that he will receive, all travellers who are willing to pay a price adequate to the sort of accommodation required, and who comes in a situation, in which he is (it to be received." A licensee is not under an obligation so to accommodate anyone who is not a traveller. Meals may lie required, and must be provided, at any hour of the day or night, to travel 1 ers unless a licensee is excused from such obligation for some reason. "The question of what is a valid reason,'' says Mr Luxford, "is one of fact, to be determined by a court in the particular circumstances." A meal may not necessarily be a "set meai,'' such as are provided, at set hours, but reasonable food must be provided which the traveller may consume on the premises.