BILL AMENDMENT Entertainment in restaurants

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32661, 17 July 1971, Page 2

BILL AMENDMENT Entertainment in restaurants

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 16.

The Government would introduce an amendment to the Sale of Liquor Amendment Bill, to allow entertainment in licensed restaurants, said the Minister of Justice (Mr Riddiford) in Parliament today.

At present restaurants may provide music but they are restricted in other forms of entertainment. TJjese restrictions were criticised today when the Haese was considering a report from the Statutes Reviston Comimttee that the bill be allowed to proceed with amendment. The committee has dropped I one 1 of the bill's clauses which would have given the Licensing Control Commissien greater control over chartered clubs. This clause was aimed at clubs which were really providing a tavern Members of the committee said that evidence in support of wider powers for the commission was not convincing. Mr C. J. Moyle (Lab., Mangere) said it was like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. MOVE OPPOSED Mr Riddiford displeased the Opposition when he gave notice that he would reintroduce the clause in a different form during the bill’s committee stages. Mr Moyle said that such a move would be directly opposed to the wishes or the Statutes Revision Committee, but the Under-Secretary for Education (Mr Gaif) said there were certain aspects of the dropped clause which might in part be worth reconsideration. Before Mr Riddiford disclosed that the Government would promote the amendment on entertainment, Mr N.~X King (Lab., Birkenhead) appealed for more liberal entertainment regulations. He said it was ridiculous that when hotels could provide entertainment, restaurants were restricted to a resident singer and perhaps an orchestra. He said he would introduce an amenment if the Government did

any fears so long as health and police requirements were met

The committee has also amended the bill to give the commission the right to ensure that there is no undue aggregation of wine resellers’ licence.

Another amendment will require wine made from other than grapes to be labelled as i such. The bill abolishes the “fair I price” which is paid on new i hotel, tavern or tourist-house : premises licence. The com- • mittee has decided that where • the price has been assessed !by the Licensing Control i Commission but will not be i paid before the bill becomes law, the licensee will not have sto pay it

”Mr J. A. Walding (LabPalmerston North) said the restriction on entertainment was absurd. “A person can sing a funny song but you can’t have someoiwtell a funny storv in a restaurant," Mr Walding said. New Zealand had some of the most restrictive liquor laws in the world, and he believed the liquor trade could be delicensed without