Entertainment Stopped In Hotel Bars

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 23

Entertainment Stopped In Hotel Bars

The conviction of a Blenheim licensee last month on a charge of using the lounge bar of his hotel, the Renwick Arms, for providing entertainment has had widespread effects. Several hotels in Christchurch w’hich were providing entertainment for patrons on Saturday afternoons have now stopped this after a warning by the police that they would render themselves liable for prosecution if they continued to provide entertainment.

The police have issued similar warnings to hotel licensees in other places.

In Christchurch, licensees and breweries owning hotels have taken legal advice on the situation.

The Christchurch police have so far issued no warnings to working men’s clubs. Two clubs, at least, are prov.ding entertainment on Saturdays. One of the clubs has sought legal opinion on its position.

In the Magistrate's Cour, i at Blenheim on November 19. Mr G. A. Nicholls, S.M., in giving his decision against David Hurrell McKenzie, licensee of the Renwick Arms, said he was not concerned, in the prosecution, whether it was desirable for people to have music when they were drinking. . . . “The act says licensees should not provide entertainment in the bar. Any entertainment constitutes a breach,” the Magistrate said. He imposed a penalty of costs only, and said he regarded the prosecution as a test case.

Th* evidence, not challenged. was that in the afternoon of September 21 a “two-piece orchestra” was playing in the lounge bar when the police visited the hotel The prosecution was

brought under section 202 (i) of the Sale of Liquor Act <19021 which says: “Except as otherwise authorised pursuant to this act. no licensed premises or part thereof shall be used or occupied for the purposes of dancing by or entertainments for persons other than lodgers or residents and their guests.” "No Harem”

The "orchestra” provided "entertainment,” the Magistrate held. He would go so far as to say it did no harm at alt He appreciated there were degrees of entertainment; some was good, and some bad.

The Magistrate said licensees could obtain a permit from the Licensing Control Commission to hold approved forms of entertainment in their hotels.

This is provided for in section 220 of the act which says inter alia: “The Licensing Commission may from time to time in its discretion exempt the holder of any hotelkeeper’s licence .... from any of the provisions of this act prohibiting dancing or entertainments. . . Mr A. G. Wicks, counsel for McKenzie, said an application had been made to the Licensing Control Commission after the police visit, but the commission would not accept the application.

In Christchurch, none of the hotels which has stopped

entertainments in bars has as yet actually applied to the commission for a permit granting exemption from the prohibition against dancing and entertainment. However, a company owning one of the hotels is about to lodge such an application. The Sandridge Hotel which only recently opened a new. £38,000 lounge bar and car park, with a special stage for entertainment in the lounge bar, has stopped providing entertainment. The licensee was advised by the local police sergeant that the hotel would be prosecuted if it continued to provide the entertainment. The Valley Inn Hotel, Heathcote, which has provided entertainment for patrons for a long time, has also stopped. This move was advised by the local police just after the licensee had paid £B5 for a new microphone system. Unhappy Customers The licensee of the Bower Hotel, New Brighton, said he spent two hours last Saturday “trying to explain why the entertainment had stopped. The customers were not at all happy about it.” At least one licensee m Christchurch is continuing to provide entertainment. He I said yesterday that he had' ! had no warning from the i police. He considered that i as his entertainmen t was provided in a beer garden, not ! in a bar, he was acting within the law. The licensees affected are not blaming tfie police, although some are questioning whether the “warnings” about prosecutions are being given to every hotel providing entertainment. Several licencees think that the police action will result in the “archaic” law being altered. In this they follow the submission of Mr Wicks, in the Blenheim case, that I “the whole tenor of the Sale |of Liquor Act is to improve I conditions . . . and the pre- ■ sence of a light orchestra did I this by making conditions ■ more pleasant for patrons.” ■ Licencees say extended hours permits for social gatherings allow the provision for entertainment. They contend that the provision of entertainment on Saturday afternoons make a social gathering of patrons who customarily love a drink in • a “local” hotel on that afternoon.