CLUB CHARTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27275, 29 December 1949, Page 4

CLUB CHARTERS

"RECENT APPLICATIONS COMMISSION’S DECISION ;GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS PA WELLINGTON, Dec. 26. - The Licensing Control Commission has given its decision in' the applications for club charters which it Jieard at a public sitting in Wellington on December 6. * In consequence of the commission's announcement regarding the locker System in association with club charter, counsel for the Christchurch Golf Club asked that the application be ajourned sine die and this was done. It can be brought on for hearing if the club so wishes when the commission holds a sitting in Christchurch. . Application Granted •i The application by the County Club (Inc.), Hastings will be granted, the commission states. The club is a very old one and in the past has made application for a charter which, in common with other such applications, was refused as a result of general policy. The club has an active membership of 240. Its premises are excellent, and its facilities are good. The president of the club assures the commission that the lockers which are now in the club will be dispensed with. As soon as the commission is informed that this ijas been done, a charter will be issued. A club charter will be granted to the Wellington Returned Services Association. No lockers will be allowed gnd the charter will provide that liquor js to be sold for consumption on the premises only. - This application by the Wairarapa soldiers’ Hostel (Inc.), Masterton, raised two or three matters of considerable importance, notably that of the jurisdiction of the commission to grant any charter within an area covered by the Masterton Licensing Trust Act, 1947. Had the legislature, however, intended that no such charters were to be granted, it would have said so, the commission states. In adjourning the application sine die, the commission says the hostel is not affiliated to the New Zealand Returned Services Association and although at the hearing counsel for the latter body said that the application by the hostel had the whole-hearted support of the Returned Services Association, the commission thinks that some thought should be given by the hostel to the desirability of becoming affiliated to ■pie Returned Services Association, if that is possible. In view of the exemptions specially granted to Returned Services’ clubs, the commission does not think it desirable that a Returned Services’ club should admit to membership civilian members. In the past, the hostel has admitted such members. It has not admitted any such civilian members in the past five years, but the power to do so Remains. That is a matter which the commission considers should be attended to by the rules of the hostel. i Guiding Principles

v in a general definition of its views concerning applications by clubs for charters the commission says it feels it must be satisfied that a club which applies for a charter brings itself not only within the definition of “ club ” get out in the Act, but also within the conception that underlies that definition—“that the club is conducted in good faith as a club.” - The commission again expresses its view that any locker system is highly lindesirable, open to abuse and impracticable. Whether such a system could be carried on within the law, the commission has power to determine that premises in which lockers are installed are unsuitable for the purposes of the club, and it will in dll cases seek the assurance of applicants for these charters that no such locker system is to be allowed. * In the matter of club membership, the commission feels that the grant of charters to clubs with very large membership should not be encouraged. It is fraught with the danger that the genial and comfortable conditions dnder which club life should be Carried on would tend to disappear; that drinking conditions would deteriorate in such clubs: and that membership would be sought primarily for the purpose of enabling members to obtain liquor iT When considering applications for elub charters, the commission says. it must take into account the public interest generally and will be careful to see that there is no indiscriminate granting of such charters.