REFERENDUM WANTED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29635, 4 October 1961, Page 12

REFERENDUM WANTED

Late Closing Of Hotels (NX Press Association) TIMARU, Oct. 3. The Government's decision not to implement the housebar clause of the Licensing Amendment Act was only a reprieve, said Mr J. H. S. Hoggi president of the South Canterbury Hotel Association and past president of the New Zealand licensed Victuallers’ Association today. He suggested that the final decision be left to the public, by way of referendum. "Let’s finish with all these half-measures,” he said. "Let’s have a referendum, on a plainly worded text If the vote is for 10 o’clock closing, then bring in this clause again and make sure the bars are locked at 10.15 pm. If the vo*e is for a locking of the bars at 6.15 p.m., then implement the present clause.” The clause in the bill which the Government had deferred for 12 months provided that every bar, except house bars, in hotels be locked from 6.15 p.m, to 9 am.

Mr Hogg said that this change will hardly lessen the desire of people to drink during the evening—“legally or illegally.**