HOTELS CLOSE BARS AT 7 O’CLOCK

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31498, 12 October 1967, Page 1

HOTELS CLOSE BARS AT 7 O’CLOCK

Most of the hotels in Canterbury closed all their bars, including house bars, at 7 pan. yesterday in accordance with a request earlier in the day by the Canterbury Hotel Association.

Telegrams were sent by the executive of the association to the licensees of 129 hotels after about 300 members of the Canterbury Hotel Workers’ Union yesterday morning had voted, with only four dissentients, not to serve liquor after 7 p.m. Only one licensee in Christchurch is known to have stayed open, and several country hotels were open.

“We have taken this action purely to protect licensees and their wives.” said the president of the association (Mr A. F. G. McGregor) last evening. “How can any licensee and his wife in any large residential hotel . properly look after their hotel and their patrons when they are deprived of bar staff?

“We have taken steps towards getting permission to close temporarily at 7 p.m., and we hope that the application will be heard by both licensing committees involved tomorrow. “In the meantime, all bars in hotels between Hanmer Springs and Rakaia will be closed at 7 p.m. until the

issue with the barmen is solved,” said Mr McGregor. Counsel for the association (Mr 3. G. Leggat) said the hearing of the application was regarded as a matter of urgency, and it was hoped that the licensing committees might hear it today. The association considered it could not carry out properly the duties involved in continuing to serve liquor after 7 p.m. when hotels were without staff. Mr McGregor said his

executive emphasised the urgency of including country hotels in the 7 p.m. closure to avoid possible danger on country roads. He said that at one large residential hotel in the Christchurch area, the licensee and his wife had on Monday and Tuesday evening attempted to serve 100 guests and hundreds of bar patrons. It was impossible for them to do this and ensure that minors did not drink and others did not drink too much, as well answer the telephone and attend to the office. Several other hotels were in the same position. The meeting of the barmen .was closed to reporters. The union secretary (Mr L. N. Short), in a statement afterwards, said that barmen would stop work at 7 p.m.

until the employers were prepared to meet the nightshift claims of the union. Mr Short said the vote was not a secret ballot The union rules did not require such a vote unless the issue was one of calling a strike. The secretary of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union (Mr N. L. Dunhill) confirmed yesterday that members of his union would be instructed not to deliver beer to hotels which engaged staff after 7 p.m. He said that no drivers were to refuse to deliver beer unless instructed by the union.