FOUR PREMISES TO BE OPENED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 226, 21 June 1944, Page 4

FOUR PREMISES TO BE OPENED

Invercargill Licensing Trust

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, June 20. The Licensing Trust hopes to open four licensed) premises on July 1. These premises are the Brown Owl restaurant, temporary buildings at the corner of Esk and Kelvin Streets and at the corner of Clyde and Eye Streets and an hotel at Biggar Street. The trust has occupied the hotel at Biggar Street and the work of reconstructing the old bar will be started at an early date. This building was the old Appleby Hotel and it was one of the hotels which had a licence when Invercargill went “dry” in 1906.

It was announced at a meeting of the trust that the trust hoped to have a good supply of spirits and beer available for the opening day. but that, like other centres, supplies would be limited. Many inquiries have been received by individual members of the trust about the prices the trust intends to charge for liquor and this question was discussed at some length. No decision was made. The trust will probably reach a decision at a meeting next week. According to one member, the public wants to know whether the trust intends to charge the same price for a “pony” beer as for a long beer. This, he said, was one of the main questions he had been asked. Another question asked was what the prices would be in the lounges or in, say, the Brown Owl. When the question of juveniles entering restaurant rooms in which liquor is served was put to members of the trust, the reply received was that a juvenile could not enter a bar but that he could enter a restaurant where liquor was served. The trust’s refreshment rooms were likened to an hotel lounge in this respect.