HOTEL HOURS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1945, Page 4

HOTEL HOURS

CHRISTCHURCH POLICE OPINION CHRISTCHURCH, July 23. The falling off in the number of persons arrested for drunkenness in recent years was due to the reduction in the alcoholic content of beer and the scarcity and high prices of spirits, and not so much due to six o’clock closing of _ hotels, was the opinion expressed in evidence to the Royal Commission on Licensing, by police, when the sitting was resumed to-day. ~ , Superintendent. H. Scott said he. considered that the licensing laws required. amendment. The offence with which police were most frequently called on to deal was that of illicit trading in licensed hotels. In. that connection he had found the lodger’s privilege of supplying his guests with liquor after hours the greatest difficulty, rendering enforce- , ment of the law in many cases practically impossible. He considered that the present hours should be retained, but he saw no objection, to liquor being supplied with evening meals in hotels and dining rooms up to eight p.m. In his opinion, the sale of liquor after that hour to any person should be absolutely prohibited. Superintendent Scott added that in his opinion the law relating the char-., tered clubs should be the same as that for licensed hotels. The need for redistribution of licenses was obvious, and in his opinion it should be done on a population basis, but with adequate safeguards for accommodation of travellers in sparsely populated districts.