LICENSED BOTTLE STORES

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 154, 5 August 1914, Page 3

LICENSED BOTTLE STORES

WILL HAVE TO CLOSE. I Press Association. WELLINGTON, August 4. ' *' Please apply, at office for any liquor from bottle, store." So ran a message on a placard gracing the doors of all bottle stores in Wellington to-day. Many jpeople won tiered what the reason could -be for such an* announcement. Enquiry by a\"New Zealand Times" reporter elicited from an hotelkeeper that it was due to" a flaw in the Licensing Act." The "flaw" consisted of the Act demanding that no publican should have more, than one public bar, and as the police are henceforth going to treat bottle stores as public bars within the meaning of the~Aet, either the store or the public bar proper will have to be closed. Superintendent Ellison . informed a "Times" reporter that the police had received instructions to enforce section 200 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 be opened or used in or upon the licensed premises. (2) If any person opens or uses more than ojic stated bar for the sale of liquor, or knowingly permits the same to be opened or used for such sale, he shall 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 favourable decisions of magistrates upon this 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 recent decision; of the Full Appeal Court, which held! that double doors or a porch did not i remove a bar from the definition of a public bar; therefore, as a licensed house is only allowed to have one public bar, the police would have to enforce the section. A breach of this section would - render the offender liable under section 240 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 chairman of the Licensed Vic-j tuallers' Association (Mr J. H. Fairbairu) informed a "Times" reporter that he, together with other licensees, had to close up their bottle stores on I account of the police notifying them that they could only have 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 held to-morrow to consider the matter, and to decide on immediate steps to have the Act amended.