HOTEL DANCING
OLD-TIME RESTRICTIONS
"NEW ZEALAND LICENSING ACT Attention lias lately been drawn to "the curious provision in the New Zealand Licensing Act, which puts an almost complete ban on dancing and concerts in licensed hotels, thus excluding an amenity which is taken lor granted as belonging to hotel life almost everywhere,, and is necessary for the entertainment, of overseas tourists. An examination of the Act shows that the ban originated more than CO years ago. in legislation of 1881, along with a number of other prohibitions' that were clearly meant to curb the ''free and frantic ways." of gold diggers, sailormen and othextough pioneers in the early colonial period. No Dancing Girls Before 1873, hotels seem to have been licensed under ordinances of the provincial councils. In that year, a Licensing Act was passed,, mainly for the purpose of defining the council's powers in that regard. In 1874 an amending Act of 45 clauses was put through, containing the following prohibitory section, reminiscent of Bret Harte and the Californian diggings of 1849: — "Whereas a practice exists in certain parts of this vcolony of hiring women and young girls to dance ■with men in rooms and places where intoxicating liquors are sold, with the intention of exciting and inducing such men to drink, any contract by which any females shall be "hired to dance in any such room or place shall be null and void. "Any room or place in which females shall be so employed or permitted,, Avhethcr by contract or by si share of the produce of a sale 'of tickets, or in any other way, shall he. taken to be a disorderly 7, house." Fines of £20 and £50i were provided for first and second contraventions hy a licensee and for a third offence his license was to be. forfeited. % Dances and Concerts Five years after the abilition of the provinces, the 1881 Act re-en-acted the clause in a slightly abbreviated form and fnatle- The licence forfeit for a second offence. Still further abbreviated, it was retained in the 1908 Act and is in force today. The ISBI Act reinforced, it with the following provision against dancing and other entertainments : ■"££ any licensed person shall permit any.room or portion of his licensed premises, or the appurtenances thereof, to be usel or occupied as a dancing, n concert, or theatrical saloon, or as a place of common resort to which persons shall be admitted by ticket or otherwise, he shall be liable to forfeit his lieonce." The legislators had never heard 01. modern ''floor shows," but thev took care to prohibit them al the same. One Concession Made One exception was made to r.Jlow a private socicty or "assembly of persons" to hire and use 1 a room in an hotel by special permission in •writing from the chairman and two members, of the licensing committee for each occasion, on coniition that the hotelkeeper had no control over .admission and no connection with the proceedings. These provisions still operate. The: present law contains, a number of other quaint prohibitions enacted in 1881. One of them effectively closes a possible, loophole between an hotel and an adjoining place, of entertainment by providing that "'every person who makes or uses,, or allows to be made or used, an internal communication between any licensed premises and any unlicensed premises which are used for public entertainments or resort" shall be. liable to various penalties. / . Cock-Fighting Prohibited Another section lays lown penalties for any innkeeper who "opens, Iceep.s* or uses, or suffers his. premises to be opened, kept or used, for the purpose of fighting or baiting any dog, cock or any kind of animal, whether of domestic or wild nature." The penalties are to be independent of and in adiition to any Inflicted for gaining or cruelty to animals. Strange as it may seem, a section makes it unlawful for any person to allow anyone whomsoever to play at billiards., or bagatelle, or any other game" on licensed premise* when such premises are required by law to be closed. This seems to make billiards illegal for everybody in a hotel, after G p.m. on weekdays and all day on Sundays. A Supreme Court pulgment of 188(5, however, held that ' any other game"
included, on'y games of the same, order as billiards and bagatelle., and did not include car's. The legislators of 1881 hard-heart-edly vetoed a form of hospitality that had been in vogue ever since Sir Robert. Peel's creation of the first police force. "Iff any innkeeper," thej' decreed, "(a) knowingly harbours or suffers to remain on his premises any constable during any part of the time appointed for such constable being on duty, unless for the purpose of keeping or restoring order, or in execution of his duty; or (b) supplies any liquor or refreshment, whether by way of gift or sale,, to any constable, on duty, unless by authority of some super.or officer of such constable . . he shall be liable, to a fine not exceeding for the first offence £10 and not exceeding for the second or any subsequent offence £20.*'
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 41, 18 January 1944, Page 3
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850HOTEL DANCING Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 41, 18 January 1944, Page 3
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