Submissions On Airport Liquor

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 24

Submissions On Airport Liquor

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 15. Liquor facilities at airports should be an extension of licensed restaurant facilities, rather than a separate service dispensing only liquor, the Presbyterian Church said today in submissions to the Parliamentiary Statutes Revision Committee. While the church was not i opposed to the airport liquor facilities proposed in .the Sale of Liquor Amendment (Bill, it feared that separate ’liquor facilities could compete with hotels and taverns and i attract “non-genuine travel--1 lers.”

Particularly in no-licence areas, such liquor businesses might tend to cater for the demands of the general public, the church’s public questions committee told the committee.

“As we understand it, the intention of the bill is primarily to provide for the travelling public and those welcoming or farewelling air travellers,” said Mr R. T. Feist, convenor of the church committee.

“This need is best met by making liquor facilities an extension of licensed restaurant facilities, rather than by creating a separate service.” The New Zealand Alliance believed that access by local people to airport liquor facilities could, in certain conditions, create problems. The facilities could become “local pubs.” The alliance also claimed

that granting these licences to private enterprise in Wellington East—a no-licence district which takes in Rongotai Airport—or in any trust district would be quite wrong in principle. “At Rongotai it would circumvent and prejudice badly the rights, of a trust should the people at any time vote for restoration, and subsequently for trust control,” the alliance said. The submission was presented to the committee on behalf of the alliance by the Rev. M. Gow. It was prepared by the acting superintendent of the alliance (Mr H. W. Miller).

The alliance suggested that the Government hold a poll to see whether “everybody” wanted liquor at airports. Mr Gow urged the deletion of the bill’s provisions for lic-

ences in no-licence areas. He submitted that section 27 of the Licensing Act, 1908, provided that the result of every valid licensing poll could only be superseded by a subsequent poll. This principle had been tested and endorsed by the highest courts in New Zealand, and by the Privy Council. The Licensing Trusts Association, in submissions additional to those made on June 30, said it was obvious that Rongotai Airport should be licenced if Auckland and Christchurch were. Until a vote was taken on restoration in the Rongotai area the association suggested that the Wellington Airport Authority should use any licence issued in trust.

If the area remained dry after the next election the licence should be offered for sale by public tender.