CLOSING HOURS FOR HOTELS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 13 August 1921, Page 5

CLOSING HOURS FOR HOTELS

FLURRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES

SYDNER. July 16.

The decision of the magistrate the other' day thaf the hour, at which hotelkeepers may close their bars is 11 p.m.. and not 6" p.m., the ..hour now universally observed in this State, has caused a great flutter.

The Government, through the Crown Solicitor, has asked the magistrate to state a case for the opinion of the Supreme Court, and meanwhile the police are threatening licensees with all sorts of dreadful things if they do not continue to close at 6 p.m. ■ ' •

The case appears to be a perfectly plain one, and ift favour of the magistrate's ruling. Sydney/ half-way through the war was greatly troubled by drunkennness among the troops^ and once or twice, to save riots, the hotels were eompulsorily closed at 6 p>m. Then it was decided to have a referndum on jth subject^, and the people, by a .gi Rat majority decided to close the fears ,at 6 p.m. for the period of the war and six months thereafter. Before the "six months thereafter" expired the Holman Government brought in a Bill providing for a referendum, to be fcafcen with 18 months from January i, 1920, on the question of prohibitum with cbmpensatioKt. and also to decide, iin the afterj native, on the permaafc-nt '-closing hours for fears. This Bill decided that "Subject to Section 111" '<jf iihe Act (which was, the section prowding that the referendum had to lig'"taken within I*s meetiths) the war-time .provision for the closing of bars at C 6 .p.m. should continue until they \were either clused altogether or a new -hour was fixed In the meantime the Holman Government was «fefeated, a Labour Govern--"Hient came in, and promptly found ujself immersed in financial "difficulties/ 1 his Governmnt refused to take the referendum. It noihted out that proi iubition would almost certainly be de--teated; that if it were '.arried "New feouth Wales was incapable ef finding the £1.2,000,000 that would be require! as compensation ; and that the rrftren™ltSelf ' vv,°llld cosFIEBD.OOO. Therefore, when June 30, 1921 arrived and the referendum had rot been taken-within the 18 months as stipulated, it was claimed that hotel- ] keepers were entitled to revert to the closing hour (11 p.m.) which had been observed, prior to Wl6. when the neopte by referendum altered it as purely *, war-time measure. The licensee of a citywme bar took this view, and the magistrate decided in his favour The licensed victuallers, as a'body. I do not want 11 p.m. closing. They areJ ±j lnSWy,weir with 6 o'clock closing. 1 w It e« hour ' *h, e V say, will mean | new staffs, new lighting and cIo-huhe1 •■expenses .arid increased overhead ex- ' Tpenses They thought they were rumeS ! 'l»™s P-.m. was established, but they! -i_^ nd^ he.y are better "If thaxr ever.-Otago^Daily Times corresponded '