HOTEL BARS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2199, 11 July 1914, Page 5

HOTEL BARS.

■ '.';'. >-;'■'-' -.. .'. f..,,;. '{■':'-]:^' : .- , '.;> A 1 MATTER OF DEFINITION. > ; . Objection is taken, by;-. Commissioner Oulloh, of the Police Forcej in .his . ari--.n'iial ■report, : to the distinction.drawn by the law, between'public and' private bars in licohsod-houses. ' . . ..' : '..■;."'."•' "Section 4 of the Licensing Act, 1908, dounes.a.; 'public bar , in liconsed preinisos,' but it is-very doubtful whether 20 per cent, of the present.licensed.premises have a public 'bar as "defined by the .Act," -he saysi "In most eases the 'doors, which,.originally; opened immediately from the .bar to a street have' been' built up, with the result that nearly all. bars now open'into a. passage, in the hotel premises; .and have ho;door opening;.immediately.. on ; to a streot, The police do not object to tlie view of the bars being shut off.from tho street —indeed, it is hotter tbat this- should be so-rbut' as certain offences may be, committed in. V .bar which cannot be punished so long as .they are committed in one not opening on to a streot, it may be well to amend the definition of public bar.to mean 'any place in.any licensed premises in which lujuor.is sold or kept for sale.' This would cover private, as" well as public bars."