Two Hotels Stop Wine And Dine Sessions

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30478, 27 June 1964, Page 14

Two Hotels Stop Wine And Dine Sessions

After police inspections and warnings that they were liable to prosecution if they continued, the licensees of the Yaldhurst and Dunsandel Hotels have stopped dine and wine sessions for the public. In court cases in . Wellington and Dunedin, it was held recently that a bar by day could not, under the Sale of Liquor Act, be a lawful place for dining and drinking at night. At least four other hotels in or near Christchurch have received similar warnings from the police and more hotels are expected to close their dine and wine facilities in' the near future. The. portion of the Yaldhurst Hotel premises used for meals served with drinks cost approximately £7OOO, the licensee (Mr J. A. Randle) said last evening. “Some customers on Saturday afternoons do wander into this room and sit down. They thus have more leisurely drinking, which the Licensing Control Commission says is most desirable.

“Because of this, the police say we cannot use these premises for serving meals with drinks. But the law makes it quite clear that bar customers must be off the premises by 6.15 p.m. Under the restaurant licence, the patrons must be seated at tables and partaking of a meal. Therefore, the two types of customers are very different. “Now, because of the police view, we have to shut and leave idle part of the premises worth £7OOO all day, every day, and offend Saturday afternoon drinkers, or cease giving meals with drinks in the evenings. “It does not seem a com-mon-sense point of view, is

not compatible with the intention of the Sale of Liquor A*ct to provide more leisurely and sensible drinking, and does not give effect to what Parliament intended,” Mr Randle said. Another licensee said that a restaurant licence could be issued for a room used as a bar by day and a wine and dine room by night if the act provided that bars should be shut and cleared by 6.15 p.m. and restaurants did not open for, say, another half hour—6.4s p.m.

Premises used as a bar by day and “bistro” or restaurant by night had been found to be suitable for both purposes, the licensees claimed.

On the other hand, another licensee said that it was just as well that the “law was being tightened up. The serving of cold spuds and meat was just a racket.”