Too Few Bars In Wellington

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 15

Too Few Bars In Wellington

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 8. The chief inspector of licensed premises, Mr H. C. McMullan, has recommended a vast increase in Wellington bar space.

Wellington bars were “the most overcrowded he had ever reviewed,” Mr McMullan told the Licensing Control Commission. Overcrowding was deplorable at peak times, he said.

“The pattern of trading which the Weiingtonian ac-

cepts as normal is totally contrary to the desires of the commission and the community and is in striking contrast to many other parts of the country,” he said. In a 62-page review of the Wellington licensing district, Mr McMullan said that to cope with the present and potential accommodation demand Wellington needed 300 more first-class beds. Mr McMullan said too many hotels were now in decadent and Tittle frequented parts of the city. Many were unable to extend their premises or were in the hands of owners who had bought them for development in other directions.

The Government centre enclosed six hotels. Street widening ordinances would affect four, commercial interests had bought four with an eye to amalgamating the sites with others and zoning inhibited the development of at least one other.

Mr McMullan said the way seemed clear for bar-rooms to hp licensed in larger buildings devoted mainSy to other purposes.

He suggested one or more floors of bars in office buildings, over shops, or even in parking buildings.

Mr McMullan said three hotels had closed since the 1950 review and total occupancy figures last year were down by almost 64,000 on the 1950 figure.

Nevertheless, Wellington hotels were under consider-, able pressure at aIT times to provide casual accommodation.

If 300 first-class beds could

not be provided by improvements or rebuilding, new hotels would be permitted. Liquor wholesale facilities in Wellington lagged behind other centres and the public was getting a poor deaf, Mr MeMullan said. The last licensing review of Wellington city was in 1950 and of Hutt Valley in 1957. There are 43 licensed hotels in Wellington and 17 in Hutt Valley. Because most of the population of Wellington city lived in “dry areas” which were not in the licensing district, the only place where licensed premises could be established was in the inner city area, Mr MeMullan said.

“It seems that in Wellington, more than any other centre, extensive rebuilding is the only solution,” Mr McMullan said. “Even then the granting of new licences seems inevitable.”