HOTEL BARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23688, 21 December 1938, Page 9

HOTEL BARS

OPEN ON MONDAY NEXT THE POSITION CLARIFIED (Special to Dailv Times) INVERCARGILL, Dec. 20. Whether hotels may remain open for bar trade on the Monday following Christmas Day is a question that has caused some doubt among hqtelkeepers in Southland for some time. It was apparently impossible to obtain any definite information on the subject, but it has now been ascertained that it will not be illegal for bars to remain open on that day. An amendment to the Public Holidays Act of 1908 states that where Christmas Day falls on a Sunday it is illegal for hotels to serve liquor on the following day, but this position is stated to have been changed by an expression of opinion by the commissioner of police in conjunction with the Crown Law Office on December 13, 1932, after a request had been made by the Licensed Victuallers’ Association. The knowledge that they may remain open for trade will no doubt be received with relief by country hotelkeepers, who would have suffered a considerable loss of business had they not been able to take advantage of the holiday trade on Monday. The position was made known in Invercargill to-day, when a statement was made by the Labour Department after consultation with the police. Mr J. H. Luxford. S.M., former chief judge of the High Court of Western Samoa, in his book. “ The Liquor Laws of New Zealand,” quotes the case of a licensee who opened his premises on the Monday following Christmas Day, and was convicted of selling liquor at an unauthorised time. Mr Justice Denniston held that the Monday was the statutory Christmas Day, and affirmed the conviction, but this decision was rendered nugatory by the Public Holidays Amendment Act, 1921