Hat – trick might dodge by – law

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33934, 29 August 1975, Page 1

Hat - trick might dodge by - law

A hat on the ground beside them might enable buskers in Cathedral Square to get round a City Council health and general committee recommendation that street musicians be banned from soliciting funds. The committee discussed yesterday what constituted soliciting, but did not agree on whether putting a hat on the ground could be considered as asking for money. It was discussing the application of Messrs M. Brady I and R. Adams to play in the! street and solicit money. Seeking or accepting donations for personal use has been considered to be begging. and the council has. always refused musicians'

who have wanted to do this. The health and general! committee at its July meeting asked the council to adhere to its present policy and grant no licence. The council sent a recommendation I back to the committee for further thought, asking that no donations be solicited 'either by spoken or written' word, or by mime. Yesterday the word,! “mime,” was at issue. “What is mime anyway,"l asked the committee's chairman (Cr N. Dodge). “I want you to be quite sure what vou are voting on. If I put ai hat down in front of me, is; I that mime?” “Oh for goodness sake!” said Cr W. J. A. Brittenden. , “Of course he is not soliciting if he has a hat down there. He would be soliciting 'if he were gesticulating in the'

direction of a collection box. or if he were saying: Give us a dollar’, or if she carried a placard saying ’Mother of I seven’. “Miming is communicating I by action.” Cr Dodge: So putting down a hat is miming. Putting down a hat is invitation to act — and that is miming. Cr Brittenden: We are becoming too restrictive if we clamp down on this kind of opportunity for people. The Square is the people. “I remember a time when the Square was a God-given shunting yard for trams. It’s! a thrill for me as an elderlyi person to walk across the! Square now and see them do-i ing their own thing, in their own way.” Cr Dunbar: Earning money bv playing on the streets, does not impress me.

. Leaving the matter of inimling undefined, the committee 'recommended to the council |that the licences be granted 'for busking on condition “that no soliciting of donations whether by mime or spoken or written word, be ■ permitted.” It also restricted the numIber of licences to three to be operative at any one time, disallowed electronic devices, and recommended that the scheme run for a 12-month trial period. An investigation into the matter of busking by the committee resulted in a report which drew a distinction be [tween any citizen’s right to I play a musical instrument in I the streets, for which no licence needed to be granted, and the occupation of street .musicianship, for which it has I been the council’s practice to

(request a licence application. I When the by-law was instiItuted 41 years ago. no menjtion was made of rights to ■ solicit funds. This was an accepted practice at the time, but the by-law was tight enough to ensure that applicants were of good character However, the by-law merely gives the council the right to grant licences, and iallows it to formulate within Ithat framework a policy that determines conditions under which licences are granted i The policy which has [gained acceptance by the [council within the limits ot the by-law has been to de 'cline applications for licences (where the musician has in,tended to solicit funds. Licences will be granted t< individuals, not groups. So for example, a trio will neec three licences.