ANTI-SHOUTING LAW

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 153, 18 March 1918, Page 6

ANTI-SHOUTING LAW

PENALTIES ON BAR SERVANTS

THE SIX MONTHS' SUSPENSION

REGULATIONS TO BE MODIFIED

When the war regulations under tho anti-treating provisions of the Act were made it was .evidently contemplated that tho law would he difficult of enforcement, and one of the penalties provided for in the regulations was that a bar attendant convicted of a breach of the regulations would be disqualified for six months from employment in any capacity in an hotel. This provision has been the subject of continued complaint by the Hotel Employees' Union, and a few weeks ag,o a deputation from the union waited upon the present Attorney-General, Sir Francis Bell, and appealed to him to havo the maximum Hub. reduced from £100 to, say, £10, and to remove the disqualification penalty altogether. In response to t\\p. appeal the Government has decided to amend the regulations so as to give the Magistrate recording tho conviction against an employee a ciiscretionaiy power to say whether , in the case of a first offence the six months disqualification penalty shall bo enforced.

Mr. E. Kennedy, secretary of tho Wellington Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union, has received the following letter from Sir Francis Beil: — "Wellington March 13, 1918. "Sir,—Referring to the representations made to mo by the deputation from the Wellington Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union on the subject of the war regulations as to treating, 1 have now to inform you that tho representations have been fully considered.

"I am unable to recommend alteration of the existing regulations in any but one respect. I think that the provision absolutely disqualifying from employment or service in any capacity in licensed premises upon a first conviction oreatcs a difficulty, since that part of the penalty leaves no opportunity to the Magistrate for discretion between aggravated and minor offences. Cabinet lias, therefore, upon my recommendation approved that the regulation be altered, so as to provide that such disqualification shall follow upon conviction for a first offence only if the Magistrate, in his discretion, deems it proper to add such disqualification to the fine. Upon a second conviction ot the same person for a similar offence the amended regulation will not allow such discretion.—l have: etc., (Signed) H. D. Bell."

Mr. E. Kennedy has sent the following reply to tho Attorney-General's letter:—

"Wellington, March 16, 1918.

"Dear Sir,—l beg to acknowledge tho receipt of your letter of the 13th insfc., with reference to tho subject of war .regulations. "We have to'thank you for the small mercy that you are prepared to mete to us. This.means that wo still have to suffer unduly under the said regulations. "Will the proposed amendment to the war regulations give to the bar attendants recently fined for offences against such leguiations an opportunity of applying for a rehearing of their casts, as to whether they should have to undergo the banishment of employment for the six months or not? The cases I have in mind are those of Middlcttm (Cambridge Hotel), Hanlon (Royal Oak Hotel), Miss Francis (Clarendon Hotel), who havo only been put out for.a .short time previous to date of deputation, to you? Wβ should be thankful if you would consider this point of the matter for a rohearincr, so as to allow of the determining Magistrate deciding as to whether ho should grant to these bar attendants a remit of the balance of the six months disqualification.—Yours faitlifully, E. Kennedy."