LICENSED TRADE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19148, 3 November 1927, Page 5

LICENSED TRADE.

INSECURE TENURE. RETIRING PRESIDENT HONOURED. Mr Arthur Rose, president of the Canterbury Licensed Victuallers' Association, who is retiring from the licensed trade and from the Association, was entertained by his fellow members of the Association yesterday and presented with an illuminated address. Mr "W. Nidd was in the chair. The chairman stated that they were assembled to do honour to the president of tho local Association, who was shortly leaving them. They all recognised and appreciated the work that he had done r&r them. The committee liad agreed that something ought to bo done in recognition of his valuable services, and it had decided to present Mr Rose with an illuminated address. Tho work that he had done for tho licensed victuallers was not only recognised locally, but throughout New Zealand. Ho had been the mainstay of the trade. The address was then read by tho chairman and presented to Mr Rose. Messrs W. J. Blake, J. M. Coffey, E. U. Just, T. Cloudesley W. A. Wells, J. R, Franks, T. Aspell, 0. Egden, J Griffin. J. McKenzie, and A. J. Lambert also spoko of Mr Rose's work for the trade. Mr R. Nash, vice-president of tho Association, stated that only thoso closely connected with the trade knew the great deal of work that it was necessary for a president of such an Association to do. For many years they had had the best possible president i" Mr Rose, and they were all sorry that they were losing him. He hoped that Mr Rose would soon be back in the trade. He wished him every success iu the future.

Mr Rose, after acknowledging the gift and the complimentary speeches, referred to the valuable services rendered to the Association by Mr T. Cloudesley, who also was leaving the Association. "Those in the trade are too apathetic," he stated. "For many years we have been fighting against Prohibition. There are a number of unscrupulous people to be dealt with in the trade, and therefore it is necessary to work continuously to keep our end up. We see that the duty on petrol has been put up, and that the community is up in arms against io. These same people, however, thought very little of the matter when the duty was raised about 300 per cent, on liquor a few years back. Those who use petrol are no greater in number than those who use liquor, but there was very little dissatisfaction expressed by the people, who used liquor, when the duty was raised.'' "I would like to point out how apathetic are those in the trade," stated Mr Rose. "They want to take a bigger interest in politics; At last election there were 280,000 who voted for the continuance of the liq~Uor trade. More use of this power should be made. A Bill is coming before the House shortly. The contents of this Bill we do not knciw, but we hope it contains a clause giving us a nine years' tenure. We have been looking for this for some considerable time, in order that we might be able to raise the standard of accommodation of our hotels in a manner befitting a rising community such as we have in this country."

"New Zealand is probably the soberest country in the world," he added. "It cannot be said that we are a drunken community. One reads from the cables that the American tourists are cutting out New Zealand from their programmes. The newspapers say that this is because they have been insulted. This is not the case. It is a question of accommodation. At present hotel-keepers are not prepared to spend from £SOOO to £BOOO in raising the standard of accommodation of their hotels when they have a tenure for only three years, and might then be told to get out. It is not a fair thing. The sooner the people concerned make their weight felt, the better it will '>e for the trade. We are in the unfortunate position that the duty on spirits has gone up about 300 per cent., and wo can only raise the prices 50 per cent. Times are too hard to make the prices any higher, consequently we are the losers."

Mr Roso thanked them for their kind remarks and for the illuminated address, which he . greatly appreciated.