Most Patrons Accept With Good Grace

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

Most Patrons Accept With Good Grace

Many Christchurch hotel bar customers were unaware of the decision of the Canterbury Hotel Association to shut all bars at 7 p.m. yesterday, but most accepted the closing without serious demur.

Guests, including overseas tourists, were not happy when told they could not get a drink. Several said they had heard that New Zealand’s licensing laws had been liberalised. Now they wondered how.

Most hotels were cleared by 7.30 p.m., although in several. customers who had heard of the 7 o’clock closing and had stocked jugs of beer were allowed to stay until they had finished them.

Guests, including overseas visitors, at the Clarendon Hotel had been annoyed when all the bars, including the house bar was shut, Mr 1 Collingwood. the manager, said. “Guests took a very dim

view of the situation, but generally the sympathy was with the hotelkeepers," he said. There had been 160 guests in the dining-room and every effort was made to see that they were served with the wines they wanted at their tables, he said. There were two private functions being held at the hotel. They had been arranged before the dispute over bar hours. Liquor was left on the tables in the rooms and the guests had to serve themselves.

All the patrons of the Bush Inn and Racecourse Hotel left sodn after 7 p.m. when the barmen stopped serving liquor.

There were four “stayputters” at the Hotel Russley who did not leave until 8.15 p.m., when they finished the jugs of beer they had bought before 7 pun. They were Messrs K. A. Finlayson, D. A. Healey, W. D. Sheehan, and C. Hunt

Mr E. J. Shaw, manager of the Hotel Russley, said that no liquor services were provided after 7 p.m. Even the house bar was closed and wine stewards were not serving at the tables. “There was a complete shut-down.” he said.

“What did 1 vote for?” said one disgruntled patron when he arrived at the Hotel Russlev at 7.30 pun. “I have my wife in the car outside. Can I bring her into the bar?”

Told that the bar had closed at 7 p.m., he said: “I hope the breweries go broke and the barmen, too.” The bar manager said that he had explained to his customers that they had to leave at 7 p.m. because there would

be nobody to serve drinks. The customers responded quite well. There was one

small incident when a member of a dart-playing group asked him to switch the lights on again. The bar manager refused to do this and pushed the objector from behind the bar. Dispute There was some difficulty at the Dominion Hotel after 7 pm. when the manager (Mr G. Shamy) and a group of drinkers had a disagreement over the use of toilet facilities.

The group, of about six drinkers, bought several jugs of beer shortly before 7 pm. and the men said they intended to stay until they had finished the jugs.

When one attempted to use the toilets at the hotel, he found the doors were locked. He approached the manager,

who refused to make any of the toilets in the hotel available.

When another approach was made to the manager, a member of the group was told he could go outside the hotel, but that he would not be readmitted.

The group left the hotel shortly after 8 pm., having finished the drinks.

Country Hotels Six hotels in the Springfield area did not close at 7 p.m. ‘l’m not going to take any directive from unions in town when the matter has been passed and made law,” said Mr D. P. Edmonds, of the Darfield Hotel.

“The Sheffield, Springfield, Kirwee, Hororata, and Coalgate Hotels and ourselves all decided that we would be cheating our local residents if we closed at 7 p.m. as directed by the Hotel Association,” Mr Edmonds said.

The proprietor of' the Kirwee Hotel, who declined to give his name, said that he kept the hotel open until 10 p.m. Only he and his wife worked in the hotel They employed no staff. At 10 pm. there were about 40 to 50 in the bar—the usual crowd, he said.

When asked whether they remained open after 7 p.m., some Akaroa publicans had no comment to make.

At Kaiapoi, no trouble had been experienced nor complaints received, the Kaiapoi

police reported. Patrons walked quietly out of the town’s three hotels when they closed at 7.15 p.m. However, the Kaiapoi WorkingMen’s Club was not affected by the direction to hotelkeepers, and was reported to be doing a roaring trade. Hotels at Hanmer Springs, Cheviot, Culverden, and one of the hotels at Waikari were serving liquor after 7 p.m. Mr T. Dale, manager of the Lodge Hotel, Hanmer Springs, said he intended to close at 7 p.m. today.