Protection for barmen urged

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32802, 30 December 1971, Page 2

Protection for barmen urged

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 29. Violence in hotels should be dealt with by stricter penalties, said the secretary of the Auckland branch of the Hotels Association (Mr W. M. Wilson) today. “There’s a wide range of penalties for assaults on barmen and managers but many are not severe enough,” he said.

The association agreed with the comments last week by the secretary of the Hotel Workers’ Union (Mr G. H. Armstrong) that hotel work was now a hazardous occupation. “We have made representations to the Minister of

Justice (Mr Riddiford) for stronger penalties for these hotel offenders,” said Mr Wilson. “We have also discussed taking civil action against the offenders on the part of the licensee, but In most cases the people who commit the assaults have nothing, anway.” Quoting examples of the penalties imposed on offenders by the court, Mr Wilson said that when a licensee in Hamilton removed the balls off a billiards, table at 10.20 p.m. he was set upon by four men and suffered permanent damage to his knee. One of the men was fined $2O. In Auckland, a manager refused to serve after 10 p.m. A man attacked him with a broken glass. When that failed, he struck the manager over the head with a beer bottle. The man was sentenced to two months gaol.

In Kamo, two men were fined $4O and $2O for an injury on a barman requiring six stitches to his head. Mr Wilson said he considered police coverage given to hotels quite sufficient, but it was a “long shot” if their visit coincided with a flare-up in the bar. Whenever the police did attend a brawl it was always handled tactfully and efficiently. Many hoteil.iepers had ,hired security guards, and the move was well worth looking at, he said.