Hotels to get powers to close bars

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 3

Hotels to get powers to close bars

PA Wellington Hotel and tavern licensees and managers are given power to refuse admission to public bars and to order drinkers from them under the Liquor Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament yesterday. It also enables them to close their bars.

The new grounds for refusing admission are if the licensee or manager has reasonable cause to believe the drinker will be violent, quarrelsome, insulting or disorderly, or will provoke others to act in this way. Drinkers can be ordered out of the bar for the same reasons. In more serious cases the licensee or manager can close the public bar if fighting or serious disorder has broken out or is believed to be about to break out.

At present the police can order a public bar to be closed but the manager or licensee has no power to act

on his owm initiative. He is obliged to admit all people to a public bar and serve them.

He can only refuse admission in the case of prohibited people, under-age drinkers, or someone w’ho has been warned not to enter because of previous conduct.

The Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) said it was uncertain under the present law whether a record of previous drunkenness or misbehaviour must relate to the same premises in order for the licensees or managers to warn against entry. “This means that the manager of one hotel may not be able to refuse admission to a person or group of persons whom he knows caused trouble at a hotel next door the night before,” he said. The Opposition spokesman on justice (Mr R. W. Prebble) said concern about violence in hotels was shared by owners and patrons.

The bill has a separate provision allowing the granting of booth licences to sell liquor at cricket matches in no-licence districts. The bill was referred to the Statutes Revision Committee.