View Of Duties Of Liquor Inspectors

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29901, 15 August 1962, Page 16

View Of Duties Of Liquor Inspectors

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 14. The Licensing Control Commission was taken by surprise at the tidings that it was intended that the inspectors to be appointed under the Licensing Amendment Act of 1961 are to be independent and divorced from the commission and its staff, says the annual report of the commission, tabled in Parliament today. _

“We had not supposed otherwise than that the inspectorate would be integrated with the administrative staff attached to . the commission, and that the commission would be responsible for their training, disposition and direction,” the report says. “At the time of reporting we have no knowledge of how the inspectors will operate. We can only hope that the underlying policy will be that they will develop not merely as a reporting service but as one which will interpret the commission to the trade and the trade to the commission.” says the report. “Our wish is that while the inspectors will have the distasteful responsibility of initiating disciplinary action and remedial measures, they will gradually be accepted as a group who are as helpful to the trade alike as to the public, the committees and the commission.”

Without disparaging the police, the commission feels that its work and the work of licensing committees will never be effective until there is a qualified field staff.

The weaknesses of the present system are that there is no continuity of service and consistency of standards and judgment, the report says. “Police officers move from place to place and they have their own personal opinion of what is fitting and necessary. It simply isn't their job, helpful as they have been and are,” says the report.