LICENSING OF SIDESHOWS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27018, 18 April 1953, Page 9

LICENSING OF SIDESHOWS

PRESENT LAW HELD INADEQUATE

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY’S POWERS (New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, April 17. Undesirable persons barred from racecourses could not be prevented from obtaining licences to operate sideshows at agricultural and * pastoral shows, said Mr J. E. Scanlon, secretary of the Northern District Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, in Auckland today. Mr Scanlon told the annual district conference of the society that in the last 18 months the council, as a licensing authority for showmen, had refused licences to persons whom it considered undesirable. On appeal to a Magistrate the decisions had been quashed, and the showmen granted licences.

Both the Racing and Trotting Conferences had laws to prevent the entry of undesirable persons on to racecourses. and it would be in the interests of show associations and the public if similar powers were granted to the agricultural society’s licensing authorities, said Mr Scanlon.

The position could be met, he said, if the society was asked to amend the section of the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act dealing with the right of appeal by applicants whose applications for licences had been declined. so as to provide for a special appeal committee, consisting of two members of a licensing authority and two representatives of the showmen, with an independent chairman appointed by the Royal Agricultural Society.

The conference approved unanimously a remit to the annual conference of the society, requesting that the law be amended so that a special committee, as suggested by Mr Scanlon, would be set up to hear appeals on applications for showmen’s licences.