WAY OF LIFE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28263, 29 April 1957, Page 11

WAY OF LIFE

Drinking Habits, Eating Hours

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 28. Uruguay sounds tough territory for temperance unions if the remarks of a Uruguayan visitor to New Zealand (Mr Lohengrin Goncalvez) are any criterion. He says that in his country nobody needs a licence to sell wine, beer, or spirits. Liquor can be bought in any wine shop, cafe, or restaurant at any time of the day or night. These places close only when there are no customers. But in spite of this freedom, said Mr Goncalvez, there was no “overindulgence” in Uruguay.

Mr Goncalvez has arrived here for a month’s study of grasslands. He is on a Food and Agricultural Organisation fellowship. He has already spent 11 months in Australia studying pasture management and sheep husbandry.

“One of the customs that seems strange to me, both here and in Australia, is the early dinner hour,” he said. “In Uruguay the dinner hour is much later. It seems to go according to status—working people dine about 8.30 p.m. The richer you are the later the dinner hour—usually up to 10 p.m.”