licensed premises that they should be more careful about how they operate when they have a liquor licence. For a long time this newspaper has advocated dispensing alcohol with a conscience and the Liquor Licensing Authority seems now to be in agreement.

Basically it cannot be a defence or an excuse for licence holders to say to the Liquor Licensing Authority that they should not be held accountable for customers who behave badly, assault people and cause general damage, because the customer was drunk. That is nonsense, of course, because those customers who behave badly have generally, not always but generally, been served too much liquor. Continuing to serve customers who have already had more than enough to drink is not dispensing liquor with a conscience. It is not even legal.

People who have a liquor licence cannot be excused when they say that customers caused a disturbance because they were drunk. Customers should not be served so much on licensed premises that they get out of control. A liquor licence carries responsibilities to the public which cannot and should not be easily ignored.

The Police have a duty under the law to inform the Liquor Licensing Authority of untoward incidents which take place on licensed premises. That is so because the people on the licensing panel have a right to know how a licence is operated and by whom it is operated. Lawyers appearing in recent hearings have tried to say that licence hearings are the same as courts and require the same standards. That is simply not true. While the Chairman of the Authority is a magistrate, these are hearings toward the order of the premises and the fitness of licence holders to properly operate a public licence. They are not trials nor should they be. That is not anti-alcohol nor is it anti-licence holder. It is simply a consideration of public order and the proper operation of the Liquor Licensing Act.

We remember the time when a Police objection to a licence simply meant no licence would be granted. We do not advocate that because we think the licensing panel should have discretion. We do not think anyone really wants to close up the nightclubs but there are people who understand that sometimes they get out of hand. That can happen when licence holders assume that a liquor licence is a right when, in fact, it is a privilege. And it is a privilege which licence holders should protect by ensuring that they operate an orderly premises. The great majority of licences are operated well and the premises which get the publicity tend to be those where there are problems.

An orderly house should be the bottom line for keeping a liquor licence. That means dispensing alcohol with a conscience and not feeding customers so much alcohol that they become disorderly. Licence holders have to assume that alcohol is for enjoyment and not for intoxicaxtion leading to disorder.