CLOSING TIME

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 119, 12 January 1932, Page 2

CLOSING TIME

RAID ON GLASSES ACTION OF WAITRESSES - ANNOYS LADY SNOWDEN The responsibility for a closingtime incident, in whieh Lady Snowden (then Mrs. Philip Snowden) was invdlved, in the Criterion Restaurant in London on November 15, was placed by the secretary of the company owning the restaurant upon the licensing laws. The incident arose at a dinner of the Guild of Singers and Players at wliich Mrs. Snowden presided. At 10.30 p.m. — the official closing time — just as Mr. John Goss was about td sing, numbers of waiters and waitresses entered the room and, despite Mrs. Snowden's protests, clfeared away all glasses and bottles from the tables. Mr. Goss had to wait for some considerable time before he could begin his song. Mrs. Snowden, herself a teetotaller, stated: "My main complaint is against the discourtesy of the whole thing. The head waiter told me he wanted to clear away. Mr .Goss had then been announced to sing. The staff came in and refused to go. "Whatever the law may be, it seems to me that a person who has paid for something to eat or drinlc before clos'ng time, and probably as earlv as eight or nine o'clock, is entifed to consume it. "In this case, too, the majority of pe-ople were having non-alcoholic drinks, and these were cleared away w:th the rest. I can undei'stand the restaurant refusing to supply intoxicants after hours, but not their clearing away glasses of lemonade." The secretary of the restaurant company said: "There was no intentional discourtesy to anyone. It iS s'mply a matter of the licensing laws, which state that at the end of the licensing hours all glasses must be cleared away. "Where a function is not wholly teetotal we have no means of disciim'natr'ng between the contents of di:Torent glasses. Our waiters cannot go round and sniff at tumblers to ascertain whether they contairi v/hi-ky and soda or ginger ale. All glasses, therefore, have to be cleared away 'on the tick' of closing time. "The law does not allow consumption of aleohoJic drinks after perm'tted hours, even if they are bought eailier. We should, of course, be quite willing to supply non-intoxi-cants once the tables have been cleared. "It is unfortunate a song should have been about to begin just at closing time, but the law makes no allowances for that: If we were summoned for a breach of the licensing j laws the magistrate would not accept any such excuse. "We should prefer to be able to use our own discretion in these matter s, but the law says we must clear away 'on the tick.' In order that there may be no mistake about the ' timo all docks in our restaurant are j synehi onined with Greenwich." *