ONLY ONE BAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 89, 5 August 1914, Page 2

ONLY ONE BAR.

£Pkb Press Association.] Wellington, August 4. "Please apply at offibe for any liquor irom bottle store.'' So ran ii message (in ,i placard gracing the doors of al! bottle stores in Wellington to-day. .Many people wondered what tb«? reason could ''•• for such an announce* incut. [nqtiiiy by a New Zealand Times' reporter elicited from an hotel keeper that it was due to."a Haw-in the Licensing Act." The "flaw" consisted of the Act demanding that no publican should have more than ono public bar, and as the police are henceforth going to treat bottle stores as public bars within the meaning of the 'Act, either the store or the public bar proper will hare to be closed. Til E POLIC E E Xl' LA NAT I OX. Superintendent Ellison informed -,\ Times reporter that the police had received instructions to enforce section '2OO of the Licensing Act. This section states: (1) After the granting of a publican's license, no bar beyond the one bar stated on the license shall Inopened or used in or upon the licensed, premises; (2) If any person uses more than one stated bar for ffe sale of liquor, or knowingly permits the same to be opened or Used foi such sale, he shall bo deemed to have been guilty of selling without a license." It was explained by the superintendent that the section related only to public bars, that is, bars having admittance directly on to the street. Encouraged, no doubt, by the favorable decisions of magistrates upon ; Ibis point, licensees had erected double doors and porches, under the impression that this would make them private bars within the meaning of the Act. This, however, had been upset by a recent, decision of the Full Appeal Court, which held that double doors or a porch did not remove a bar from the definition of a public bar. Therefore, as a licensed house is only allowed to have ono public bar, the police would have to enforce the section. A breach of this section would render the offender liable under section 210 of the, Act, which states that "Every person who commits a breach of any of the provisions of this Act for which no specific penalty is thereby provided, is liable to a fine not exceeding £5. THE LICENSEES'. VIEWS. The chairman of the Licensed vie- 1 tuallers' Association (Mr J. ,H. Pairbairn) informed a Times reporter that. he, together with other licensees, had had to close up two bottle stores on account of the police notifying them ithat they could only have one bar openiiig directly on to the street. This would mean serious loss and inconvenience to licensees, but he desired it to be understood that, notwithstanding this, the hotelkeepers would comply with-the law. A meeting of tills 1 association is to be In Id to-morrow to consider the matter, and to decide on immediate steps to have the Act amended.