HOTELKEEPER IN DIFFICULTIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 65, 5 August 1914, Page 4

HOTELKEEPER IN DIFFICULTIES.

ONLY ONfl BAR. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Uist Night. "I'lca.ie iipplv at (ili'ico for any liquor from ?>(>'. I,e alore." So ran a message on a. pluci.rti gracing the doors of all Ik.tlie s.i 11'- in Wellington to-day. Many people wondered wfeit the reason ctnld be for such an announcement. !n----(p.irv by a New Zea'eind Times' ruportei elicit.-d from an hotel keeper that it was due to "a flaw in the Licensing Act." The "flaw" consisted of the Act demanding that no publican should kavo aiiye than one puMic bar, and as the police arc (henceforth going to trnit ■bottle stores as public bars within the n'eaninflj-of the Act. eitlier the store or the public bar proper will have to be dosed. TIIE POLIOE EXPLANATION.

Superintendent Ellison informed a Times, reporter that the police had received ii ,'lrwtions to enforce section 200 of IJIO Licensing Act. This sect,ion ' states: (1) After the granting of a. publican's license, no liar beyond the one ba.r stated on the licen.s« shall be opened or used in or upon the licesed premises; (2) If any person opens or uses moTe than one stated bar for tihe sale of iliquor, or knowingly permit* the same to b,; opened or listed for such sale, ho tlhlall be. 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 this point, licensees DiM erected double doore and porches, under fh'e impression that this would make them private "bars within the meaning of the Act. This, Ovowever, had been I vnpset by a remit decision of the Fit'.l Appeal Court, which held that' double 1 doors or a porch did not remove a bar from the definition of a public bar. Tlerefon, as a 'licensed tome is onlv allowed to have one public bar, the police would have to enforce t(hc section. A breach of this section would Tender the offender liable under weetion 240 of the Act, which' states that "Every pe"son who ccqrimits 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. TITS LICENSEES' VIEWS. Thte chairman of the Liccnesd Victuallers' Association (Mr. J. H. Fairbairn) 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 that, they could tnly lhavc one bar opening 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 the association is to be ha'd to-morrow to consider the matter, an.l to decide on immediate steps to have the Act amendted.