ANOTHER VIEW OF LIQUOR EXPERIMENT

Chronicle (Levin), 18 October 1946, Page 4

ANOTHER VIEW OF LIQUOR EXPERIMENT

■Press Associatinn

By Telearavh—

INVERCARGILL, Oct. 17. "While not desirous of embarrassing the Invercargill Licensing Trust at a time when it is engaged in work still at the experimental stage, this meeting does emphatically challenge the truth of the published statements of the chairmah of the trust and others, tJiat it is a growing eonviction of the people that the experiment is a siiceOss. On the contrarv this meeting is convinced that there is growing dissatisfaction in the public mind with some aspects of the experiment. This rcsohitiori- was carried unanimously tonight at a meeting addressesd by the Dominion organiser of the Noy Zealand Alliance, Reverend H. G. Gilbert. The chairman of the trust Was reported to have been coinplimented by the police on the absence of drunkenness, said Rev. Gilbeft, bfit whereas the nuinber of convictions in the last six months of no licoTice totalled four, those in the flrst six months of the trust eontrol totalled 50. He" said he understood Ihe trust supported 10 p.m. closing simply because its hotels were unable to cope with the six o'clock rush. Rev. Gilbert criticised aspects of the report of the Licensing Commission and aflfirmcd the determination of the alliance to oppose the introduction of liquor to the Iving Country. He referred to the declino in moralitv among young people as the rcsult of liquor and said he did not wish to defame young people but did thinlc they wrere too good an asset to be sacrificed.