CLUB LIQUOR LICENCES

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 14

CLUB LIQUOR LICENCES

LICENSING TRUST’S OPPOSITION (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 10. Members of the Invercargill Licensing Trust are concerned that in recent years the Licensing Control Commission should have granted liquor charters to a further 78-clubs, and that there would appear to’ be every indication of the granting of further such liquor licences, says the chairman of the trust (Mr R. Bleakley) in his annual report to the Minister of Justice (Mr J. R. Marshall). "Chartered clubs can and in some cases do present serious competition to the hotel industry,” says the report ‘That such competition is most unfair should be admitted, when it is pointed out that chartered clubs are not obliged to provide accommodation, and are not subject to taxation. This trust has provided more than £300,000 for income tax and social security charges on its profits to date. Why should the 126 chartered clubs operating in New Zealand today, with a total turnover in liquor probably well in excess of the liquor turnover of this trust for the same period, pay no taxation at all?” Mr Bleakley says the trust strongly disapproves of the granting to any chartered club of the right to sell liquor for consumption off the premises. The trust notes the efforts being made by vario”* interests advocating 10 o’clock closing, and contends that every effort should be made to enforce the observance of the hours of trading as at present fixed by law.