LICENSEE'S APPEAL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31291, 10 February 1967, Page 1

LICENSEE'S APPEAL

Rejection By Commission

An appeal by Arthur Francis Gordon McGregor, licensee of the Prince of Wales Hotel, against a decision of the Canterbury Licensing Committee refusing to allow him to use a bar to entertain guests has been dismissed by the Licensing Control Commission. Mr McGregor, president of the Canterbury Hotel Association, vice-president of the national organisation and a member of the North Canterbury provincial council, said in his evidence that he had to interview and entertain a considerable number of visitors and trade associates. He did not wish to disturb his children by using the family lounge in the hotel and did not wish to drink in front of the children.

The commission’s decision agrees that there are inconveniences involved in entertaining guests, particularly business associates, in family quarters, but says this is a situation faced by most persons from time to time. If the commission considered the personal situation of each licensee, the most serious inroads might be made into the principle that licensees must not entertain in bars after hours, the decision says. If Parliament meant to provide a wider basis of exemption it would have used different language.