SIDESHOW CONTROL

Southland Times, Issue 25361, 13 August 1935, Page 8

SIDESHOW CONTROL

ADOPTION OF LICENSING SYSTEM. A. AND P. SOCIETIES’ DIFFICULTIES. The control of sideshows is a question that has caused a great deal of concern to A. and P. societies. For some considerable time a move—initiated by Messrs H. F. Hicks and A. L. Adamson, secretaries to the Wyndham A. and P. Association and the Southland A. and P. Association respectively—has been on foot to obtain an official, and generally recognized set of rules providing for and governing the issuing of licenses. The annual meeting last evening of the Wyndham Association found that some real progress has been made in this direction.

A letter was received from the president of the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand (Mr W. J. Wild), who also forwarded a set of by-laws which already had the approval of the Commissioner of Police. The legal process of passing the Crown Law Office and being gazetted had yet to be completed, though, and it was desired that one or two societies should adopt the by-laws, and send the authority to the Royal Agricultural Society in order that it could go ahead with gazetting and so test the matter. All expense would be borne by that society. It was suggested that Wyndham should be one of those societies. Mr A. M. Weir said that the North Island conference had been handling this matter for years and had got nowhere with it. Messrs Hicks and Adamson had been the prime movers in this particular effort. The original idea was that licenses should be issued by the police, but it was clear that the Commissioner of Police was not prepared to accept that responsibility. His was a reasonable attitude, too, because it was only proper that the issuing of licenses should be a duty of the societies themselves. The police were prepared to give every assistance, and definite promise of that assistance was indicated in the rules. He thought that the society should adopt the rules as drafted.

“It has taken us nine years to get to this point,” said Mr Hicks, who explained that the whole aim was to obtain authority to exercise as close a supervision as any society wished to exert on the admission of sideshows. In the past there had been no consistent policy and no official authority. The adoption of a licensing system should be a-great assistance. The meeting decided to adopt the bylaws and to authorize the Royal Society to test them. It was set out that they should be known as the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies By-Laws, 1935. Detailed provision was made for powers of exclusion and licensing, the effect being that every applicant for a license should first obtain a police repo.rt. Then the granting of a license was entirely at the discretion of the society concerned.