LICENSING PLACES OF AMUSEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4748, 3 February 1877, Page 2

LICENSING PLACES OF AMUSEMENT.

The City Council .have drafted a by-law, for the purpose o£ licensing the various places of amusement in the city, which, is now under the consideration of the legal adviser o£ the Council. This by-law is rendered necessary, by the repealing o£ the Act of IjJG7, whereby registration of all buildings for amusements was imperative.'and a charge, made of one guinea. It is desirable thai; all the classes of buildings or amusements should be licensed, even if the amount were merely nominal, to enable a supervision to be exercised by the City Council, City Surveyor, and the police. It not unfrequently happens that buildings for public meetings and places of amusement, are so constructed that when any accident occurs, or when a panic ensues from whatever cause amongst those assembled therein, the means of egress are so deficient that great loss of life takes place on such occasions. Without some system of registration, the city authorities could haveno more power to interfere in such cases of defective construction of public buildings, than they would have to interfere in cases where defective flues or fire places were constructed in private houses. Subjoined are the terms of the by-law, as at present drafted: — In pursuance of sub-section 4 of section 323 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1876, the Council of the city of Auckland ordain that the following shall be the charges respectively, for places of public amusement, that is to say : —Theatres, £10 per annum: theatres and circuses for any period not exceeding one calendar month, £3 ■ public hall or rooms used for any description of public meeting, entertainment, amusement, or performance, £2 per annum; public hall, or rooms used for any description of public meeting, entertainment, amusement, or performance, for any period not exceeding one calendar month, 10s; bowling or ekittle alley, £1 per annum ;-shooting galleries, £ 1 ; billiard or bagatelle tables, £1 per annum; any amusement not otherwise enumerated, £1.