Magistrate Says Bistro Is Bar

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30468, 16 June 1964, Page 3

Magistrate Says Bistro Is Bar

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, June 15. The City Hotel bistro was a bar, Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., held in a reserved decision today.

The Magistrate said he found “no inherent danger or vice” in this type of establishment. It had certain merits, especially the advantage that food was sold with liqudr. The decision was after the hearing of charges last Tuesday against the manager of the City Hotel, Mostyn Stewart Elms, of opening, selling and exposing liquor after hours and against Leslie William Houston, a barman, of being a person other than the licensee supplying liquor. The charges arose out of a visit to the bistro by a sergeant and an inspector on August 9, 1963. The Magistrate said he regarded these as test cases and not an occasion for a heavy fine.

Elms was fined £5 for selling. He was convicted and dis-

charged on the two other charges. Houston was fined £5.

The Magistrate said the charges had been brought to find whether the bistro was a bar within the meaning of the Sale of Liquor Act, 1962. Liquor would be obtained there between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. without food as in a hotel bar.

Between 4.30 p.m. and 6 p.m. there was more drinking there, again the same as in a hotel bar. There was easy access and anyone could procure liquor.

The Magistrate said 20,000 people last year had used the bistro to obtain liquor.