SUNDAY TRADING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21561, 4 August 1933, Page 8

SUNDAY TRADING

MUSIC AND REFRESHMENTS i CONCERTS NOT LEGAL CONVICTIONS IN WELLINGTON RESULT OF TEST CASE [by telegraph—own correspondent] WELLINGTON, Thursday "I think the matter was fairly arguable and probably the concerts were put on in ignorance that they constituted a breach of the law," said Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court to-day, when ho convicted and ordered the proprietors of the Mayfair Cabaret and the receher for The Ritz, Limited, to pay Court costs on charges of keeping open their premises for the purpose of transacting business on Sundays. The magistrate's decision followed a test case which was brought by the police some time ago to decide whether concerts on Sunday nights in cabarets and restaurants were legal. In the course of a reserved judgment dealing with the Ritz case, Mr. Page said it was clear that by sub-section 3, section 18, of the Police Offences Act, 1927, premises might be kept open on Sunday for the sale of refreshments for consumption on the premises, and ho knew of no law that would prohibit the providing of suitable music during the course of and as an adjunct to the sale and consumption of refreshments. However, it was a question of degree whether the music professing to be so provided was in reality so, or whether the providing of it was not rather the promoting of a concert, with the addition of some refreshments as an adjunct to the concert. "Upon careful consideration of the whole circumstances," continued the magistrate, "I am of opinion that the promoting of these concerts goes substantially beyond the providing of music incidental to the supply of refreshments and that the defendant company lias made a business of concert-promoting. As such business has been carried on on Sundays, and as the defendant has kept open its premises for the purpose of transacting such business, I think that its operations constitute a breach of the statute.

"It was urged by counsel that as the defendant had the right to keep open its premises for the supply of refreshments, it cannot be convicted for keeping open, even though its other operations, namely, the providing of a concert, may bo prohibited. Where, however, premises are kept open for a double purpose, they are kept open for each purpose. The mere fact that under section 309 of the Act the City Corporation may have consented to the holding of concerts, does not render lawful that which would otherwise be unlawful. I think, therefore, that a breach of the Sunday trading laws has been established and that tho defendant must be convicted."

The oase against the Mayfair Cabaret was similar, though not identical, in its general features, and a conviction would have to be entered in that case also, concluded the magistrate.