LICENSING LAWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24949, 23 June 1942, Page 2

LICENSING LAWS

WAR-TIME RESTRICTIONS SHORTER HOTEL HOURS (PA.) WELLINGTON, June 22. Retail hours for the sale of liquor in future will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. except on Saturdays, when the hotels must close for two hours between 2 and 4 p.m. These provisions are contained in the Licensing Act Emergency Regulations, which were gazetted to-day, and will come into force immediately. Licensees will be required to keep a register of lodgers, and orders are to be signed for all drinks ordered by lodgers after hours. The police may apply to a magistrate for cancellation of a publican's licence, and the magistrate may cancel it and disqualify the premises for a period of not more than two years. No intoxicants shall be consumed in railway trains, railcars, trams, omnibuses, service cars, or taxis, or taken on to such vehicles for consumption, and no public vehicle shall be used for carrying liquor for Maoris in nolicence areas. Sales to Servicemen

The existing provision restricting the sale or supply of liquor to soldiers other than for consumption on premises is now made to apply to all services, and where any naval, military or air authority had declared in writing any licensed premises to be out of bounds the publican is liable to a fine for supplying liquor to any member of that force.

It is now an offence, punishable by a fine of £lO. for fire-watchers to drink or have liquor in their possession, or for persons to supply it to them. With the proviso that existing contracts may be carried on until August 31, newspaper advertising of liquor is prohibited except for a size of two inches by two inches and a-half, and no advertisement shall contain matter calculated to encourage drinking among women. Screen or radio advertising of liquor is prohibited. It is now an offence to sell materials, packed, measured, compounded, or designed to enable others than licensed brewers to make intoxicating liquors, and constables may search for sly grog without a warLicences may be voluntarily suspended for revival after the war, and licensees who are performing a national service may transfer licences to their wives with the consent of a Licensing Committee. Promotion of Efficiency

"In common with all the nations engaged in the war. New Zealand has had to face the problem of restricting in some measure the facilities for the purchase and consumption of alcoholic beverages." said the Prime Minister, Mr P Fraser, to-day. The Government and the War Cabinet had had many meetings to discuss the regulations, which were designed to grapple with an evil which had been accentuated owing to the war. It must be recognised that it was not the Government's function to introduce prohibition under the guise of war emergency, but only to take measures calculated to minimise the evils of drunkenness. He believed that the reduction of the alcoholic content of beer had done much already to achieve this, but it was felt that further steps were necessary for increasing the nations sobriety generally and for the promotion of the efficiency of the war effort. Mr P. C. Coyle, secretary of the Licensed Trade of New Zealand, said the licensing regulations represented the considered opinion of the Government. They were restrictive in character, and it remained to be seen whether they would achieve what the authorities had in mind. The general public was also being regulated.