BETTING IN HOTELS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1934, Page 8

BETTING IN HOTELS

LICENSING COMMITTEE MEETS. RE-BUILDING RECOMMENDATION. Quoting from the police report the chairman of the New Plymouth Licensing Committee, Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., drew the attention of licensees at the quarterly meeting yesterday to alleged betting on hotel Though this was not an offence under the Licensing Act it was an offence for a licensee knowingly to permit betting on the premises, he said. / -• The committee decided to take no action in regard to the following proposal from the Stratford Licensing Committee forwarded from Stratford in accordance with its resolution that all licensing committees in New Zealand be circularised asking for an expression of opinion on the matter: “That the licensing committees of New Zealand should in the public interest make a joint representation to Parliament to amend the Licensing Act to enable licenses for hotels in sparsely populated districts or close to larger centres, especially where not directly under police supervision and not necessary to the requirements of the travelling public, to be cancelled with* compensation to the/owners, or at the option of owners to be removed to centres of population where they are more needed.”

The reasons supporting the resolution were given as follows: That motoi* transport has so affected present day travelling conditions that hotels such as those referred ito in the resolution are not required by the travelling public; that the existence of the hotels referred to constitutes a temptation to motorists whereby they may become a menace to the safety of the public using these roads; that there is evidence that some of such hotels depend to a certain extent on after hours selling and on the supplying of liquor to persons attending dances and that they cater for this class of trade. The license of the Grosvenor Hotel, New Plymouth, was transferred from James Ernest Reid to Harrison Ashworth Nodder and a license granted Nodder.

Renewals of licenses in respect of the following hotels were granted:— Rose Ann Leslie, Waitara Hotel; Adam Lile, Red House; Edgar Owen Meredith, Terminus, three months renewal; William Henry Parker, Breakwater; Herbert John Davis Power, Imperial; Walter David Graham, Criterion; Thomas Stanley Jones, White Hart; Frederick Wallis, Royal; Michael Fahy, Masonic, Waitara; Samuel McAfee, Bridge, Waitara. Wholesale license renewals were granted Devine and Co. Ltd. and Hardwicke and Robertson Ltd.

The renewal of the Terminus Hotel license for a period of three months was to enable a decision to be come to as to rebuilding in accordance with the architect’s report.

There were present at the meeting: Messrs. W. H. Woodward, S.M., C. E. Bellringer, J. S. S. Medley, W. F. Jenkins, J. R. Hill and J. McLeod.