The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, MARCH 10th, 1922. LICENSING REFORM.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, MARCH 10th, 1922. LICENSING REFORM.

A measure of licensing reform is likely to be enacted in the near future. The licensing laws ns they stand are fairly old, and were compiled when settlement conditions and the population of the country was very different to what it is to-day. Also the needs in Regard to accommodation have grown greatly. People travel nfore, and require additional comforts to those which sufficed a couple of decades ago. On this account reform in the law of innkeepers is rather overdue. Apart from the publicity drawn to the matter by the resolution at the Commercial Travellers Conference, Parliament set up a special committee to go into the subject. The committee during the recess is to go into the matter, a nd will report to next session, when fresh legislation is likely to lie brought down. The Parliamentary Committee is about to begin its investigations and no doubt various phases of the matter will lie gone into in detail. The licensing polls question to which reference 'has been made already in these columns will be a subject brought up prominently, but it is not the only matte r for consideration.., While it is highly essential that there should be greater stability in the matter of tenure of license, subject of course to good behaviour on the part of the liconsee, it is important that the public convenience should be considered in many ways in which it is at present rather overlooked. Licensed houses should be places of accommodation before they are anything else. They should not be mere drinking ] shops. They should have ample accom. ' modation and should be commodious ' (

enough to meet the volume of the local traffic. It is often noticeable that

hotels so e il Uc\l. fail to provide anything like accommodation, preferring to rely on the bar trade for upkeep. The proposed amendments should deal with this phase, and in accordance with the size of the town or district, a minimum capacity for accommodation should be insisted upon. The quality of the accommodation is another matter, both in respect to the privacy and convenience of same. Overcrowding should not be permitted, and a class of hotel should be legislated for which will give patrons every reasonable convenience. The proprietors have the choice of making their own tariffs and in return the public require to be well cared for. The matter of trading how's will be a vexed question, but it needs grappling with. The six o’clock closing penalises many communities outside the cities. More, it makes law breakers of people who are anxious to observe the law. It is probably difficult to define what would suit all places, but the present unsuitability of the hours is apparent and thei'B is iiehd fOr atneiidmeht; i’he public travel liltfre hbw thail heretofore. In most places—particularly aw Ay from the Coast—tariffs are high and the public hare a right to get a convenient service for their money. If the hotelkeeper were on a sounder trading footing not having to run the risk of breaking the law and had a more secure tenure between polls, the public would soon feel the advantage, and for that reason licensing reform should not bo unduly delayed.