AFTER HOURS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 14, 17 January 1936, Page 2

AFTER HOURS

ADELAIDE EXPERIMENT CURIOUS LICENSING LAW SYDNEY, Jan, 2. After a week's experience ot the operation of a new licensing Act, South Australians are amazed at the liberty it gives for after-hc-urs drinking. Under a -tew provision ot the law, any person, bona fide club, or association, society, or public body may obtain lor the payment of a lUs fee, a special ene-mght permit for liquor on the occasion of a dinner, banquet, social gathering, or other eimilar engagement on hotel premises. The Act docs not limit the number > of permits that may be obtained and once a permit has been granted the permit holder ami his guests can obtain as much liquor as they like from (i p.m. (the cloning hour) until mid night without risk of police interference. Tire applicant for a permit does not have to stipulate the names or the number of his guests, so the opportun- i ity is presented for almost unre- j istricted afterdiour drinking. The Act says that liquor may be ‘‘sold, supplied or consumed to and by persons present at and taking part in the social gathering.” It is extremely easy to obtain a permit. The only made by . the Act is that 24 hour>’ notice must be given. The applicant first secures the endorsement of the hotelkeeper. His application is then lodged at the nearest police station, and referred to two Jurdiccs of the I’eacc, or a special Magistrate for approval. From the wide terms in which the new provision is expressed it seems that only in extreme cases would a permit be re fused. It 36 suggested that even if the police had valid objections the applicant could flout their authority by securing the signatures of any two Ju'tiers within 10 miles cl’ the premises for which the permit, is sought before lodging his application at the p'dice sta i ion. The applicant for a permit docs not have to slate the names of the number of his guests. And the hotel keeper has merely to warn his. after-hc-urs customers of the name of their ‘‘host” for the night. In other woi'ds, they arc given the password. Many of the hotels are issuing to their customers printed cards bearing the name of the permit holder for each night, ami many people have received invitations to be the guci-l, at a hotel, of some person who it a complete stranger to them. The guests, of course, have to buy their own liquor. There iias sprung up a new racket. Prilled invitations to attend hotel parties are being hawked around Adelaide at Is each. The permit section also applies to the consumption of liquor until midnight at dance halls, restaurants, or other places at which meals or refreshments are ordinarily consumed. As these picniisce are unlicensed under the J/icensing Act, however, the sale or supply of liquor by the management is prohibited. 1 his means tnat the people taking part in the social function must take their own supplies of liquor. In practice it i 6 comparatively easy to evade the law by the management laying in stocks and issuing tickets to its guests fur the liquor they consume. The irony of the whole situation is that while the fight agaitu-t the Levonsing Ball was concent rated on the proposed extension of trading hours after 6 p.m., Parliament has, under the permit provision of the new law, left a loophole for wholesale drinking aftci hours. One police official said that the anti-liquor faction “st d at a gnat and swallowed a camci.’’ It is «=trange to residents of other States that Adelaide, known as the “City of Churches,” should have introduced. not only the liquor-drinking ex tension, but should also have becu the pioneer or licensed starting-price betting shops.