Licence For New Brighton Premises

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29901, 15 August 1962, Page 17

Licence For New Brighton Premises

a restaurant licence tor the premises. Ocean View, cn Marine parade near the pier at New Brighton, to Leonard Hampton Duffield. There were no objectors to Duffield’s apolicaticn. Mr B. L. Stanley, in submissions in support of the application, said that Duffield applied for a licence in September last and was refused. Since then Duffield had spent £3OOO on the premises, and would spend a further £2OOO to carpeting and furnishing the lounge. Duffield had wide experience in a grillroom business, and proposed to staff the Ocean View so that it would be run to accordance with the commission’s high standards. The Ocean View was now one of the largest and most modern restaurants in New Zealand and served an area which had no licensed restaurant.

The New Brighton area had a late shopping night on Saturday, and this brought crowds from central and greater Christchurch to the area. Almost every tourist shin included New Brighton in bus itineraries for the passengers. “Apart from all this, the beach at New Brighton is a great drawcard, and many of the central Christchurch people who want to dine in a licensed restaurant would rather do so outside the city centre because they see so much of it in business hours,” counsel submitted. He asked that the commission grant the applicant a licence, conditional on his fulfilling any requirements ‘hat the commission might lay down to bring the premises up to standard. If the commessien granted the licence, conditionally, it would save further applications for ‘he licence. Commission's Decision There were no objections to the application and the commission agreed that the area was suitable for a licensed restaurant the chairman said. There were one or two factors about the applicant, including his financial position, that the commission wished to know more abcut. He did not wish to canvass the applicant’s financial position in public, and the commission would discuss •he matters with counsel and the applicant in chambers. The application had given the commission unusual difficulty. said the chairman when the hearing resumed. On the one hand, the situation was convenient and suitable for the purposes of a restaurant licence, and the applicant had carried out a considerable amount of work towards making the premises up to the s*andard required tor a licence. “On the other hand, the applicant has done all this, at considerable personal expense, on his own initiative and without encouragement from the commission,” said the chairman. “Net a Precedent” The commission had heard in camera about the applicant’s personal financial position because he was entitled to privacy about that. The

applicant had put a considerable amount of capital into the business w-ith what the commission felt was a considerable amount of optimism, because the returns of the business were uncertain through the applicant's havtog to employ outsiders. “The application • is granted, subject to certain requisitions being carried out, because it is not the business of the commission to judge the soundness of applicants as businessmen or applications as business propositions.

“This decision is not to be taken as a precedent by any other applicant who chooses to lay out a large sum of money in the belief that he has only to do this to get a licence. There are many other factors that enter into the granting of a licence, as “he police and Health Department are well aware.”