AN ANCIENT BAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25428, 8 January 1944, Page 7

AN ANCIENT BAN

DANCING IN HOTELS QUAINT SURVIVALS IN ACT Attention has lately been drawn to the curious provision in the Licensing Act which (states the New Zealand Herald) puts an almost complete ban on dancing and concerts in licensed hotels, thus excluding an amenity which is taken for granted as belonging to hotel life almost everywhere, and is necessary for the entertainment of overseas tourists. An examination of the Act shows that the ban originated more than 60 years ago, in legislation of 1881, along with a number of other prohibitions that were clearly meant to curb the “free and frantic ways” of gold diggers, sailormen, and other tough pioneers in the early colonial period. No Dancing Girls Before 1873, hotels seem to have been licensed under ordinances of the provincial councils. In that year, a Licensing Act was passed, mainly for the purpose of defining the councils’ powers in that regard. In 1874 an amending Act of 45 clauses was put through, containing the following prohibitory section, reminiscent of , Bret Harte and the Californian diggings of 1849: “ Whereas a practice exists in certain parts of this colony of hiring women and young girls to dance with men in rooms and places where intoxicating liquors are sold, with the intention of exciting and inducing such men to drink, any contract by which any females shall be hired to dance in any such room or place shall be null and void. “Any room or pla'ce in which females shall be so employed or permitted, whether by contract or by a share of the produce of a sale of tickets, or in any other way, shall be taken to be a disorderly house.” Fines of £2O and £SO were provided for first and second contraventions by a licensee, and for a third offence his licence was to be forfeited. Five years after the abolition of the provinces, the 1881 Act re-enacted the clause in a slightly abbreviated form and made the licensee forfeit for ,a second offence. Still further abbreviated, it was retained in the 1908 Act, and is in force to-day. The 1881 Act reinforced it - with the following provision against dancing and other entertainments:—“ If any licensed person shall permit any room or portion of his licensed premises, or the appurtenances thereof, to be used or occupied as a dancing, concert, or theatrical saloon, or as a place of common resort to which persons shall be admitted by ticket or otherwise, he shall be liable to forfeit his licence.” The legislators had never heard of modern “ floor shows,” but they took care to prohibit them all the same. One Concession Made One exception was made to allow a private society or “ assembly of persons ” to hire and use a room in a hotel by special permission in writing from the chairman and two members of the Licensing Committee for each occasion, on condition that the hotelkeeper' had no control over admission and no connection with the proceedings. These provisions still operate. The present law contains a number of other quaint prohibitions enacted in 1881. One of them effectively closes a possible loophole between a hotel and an adjoining place of entertainment by providing that “ every person who makes or uses, or allows to be made or used, any internal communication between any licensed premises and any unlicensed premises which are used for public entertainments or resorts ” shall be liable to various penalties. Another section lays down penalties for any innkeeper who “opens, keeps or uses, or suffers his premises to be opened, kept or used, for the purpose of fighting or baiting any dog, cock, or any kind of animal, whether of domestic or wild nature.” The penalties ate to be independent of and in addition to any inflicted for gaming or cruelty to animals. Strange as it may seem, a section makes it unlawful for' any person to allow “ anyone' whomsoever to play at billiards, or bagatelle, or any other game " on licensed premises when such premises are required by law to be closed. This seems to make billiards illegal for everybody in a hotel after 6 p.m. on week-days and all day on Sundays. A Supreme Court judgment of 1883, however, held that “ any other game” included only games of the same order as billiards and bagatelle, and did not include cards. The Constable’s Beer The legislators of 1881 hardheartedly vetoed a form of hospitality that had been in vogue ever since Sir Robert Peel’s creation of the first police force. “If any innkeeper,” they decreed, “ (a) knowingly harbours or suffers to remain on his premises any constable during any part of the time appointed for such constable being on duty, unless for the purpose of keeping or restoring order, or in execution of his duty: or (b) supplies any liquor or refreshment, whether by way of gift or sale, to any coiistable on duty, unless by authority of some, superior officer of such constable ... he shall be liable to &' fine not exceeding for the first offence £lO and not exceeding for the second or any subsequent offence £20.”