Limit On Hotel Shift Discussed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 3

Limit On Hotel Shift Discussed

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter?

WELLINGTON, September 2.

A better distribution of hotel licences might be achieved if the restriction limiting the distance a hotel might be transferred to 20 miles were removed, the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) said in Parliament today in answer to a question by Mr W. E. Rowling Opp., Buller). *

Mr Rowling had asked whether, in view of the report of the Licensing Control Commission, Mr Hanan could indicate whether consideration was being given to some adequate system of compensation which would permit the withdrawal of some hotel licences. (The commission suggested that New Zealand had too many hotels, and that there was a serious degree of maldistribution.) “Before the law was revised in the Sale of Liquor Act, 1962, there were somewhat complex provisions for declaring licences redundant and compensating the owners,” Mr Hanan said. “These provisions had, however, become virtually a dead letter

because of the very high amounts of compensation awarded by the Supreme Court on appeal from the Licensing Control Commission.

“One suggestion that has been made is to make it easier to remove licences from one site to another, for instance by removing the present restriction which limits the distance a licence may be removed to 20 miles.

“Apart from any changes In the law, it may be that some unnecessary hotels will disappear because it will be uneconomic to comply with the commission’s requirements for bringing their accommodation and facilities up to reasonable standards.”