"GOING INTO HOTELS"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 124, 11 June 1937, Page 4

"GOING INTO HOTELS"

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The Money oi New Zealand's Poor "W0RSE 0FF' THAN BEFORE

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GISBOENE, This Day. "One has only* to walk down the street on Saturday morning to see that," the Eev. F. E. Leadley, Methodist minister at Gisborne, told a reporter last night, when asked for his com- 1 ment on a report from Napier in which Mr F. B. Logan, chairman of the Ilawke 's Bay County Council, was quoted as having declared that there had been an alarming increase in drinkiag in New Zealand since the introduction of the shorter workiag week in accordance with Government legislar tion. Outspoken in his comment, Mr Logan is reported.to have said he had been filled with "horror and shame" at what he had seen. "A number of the poor people — many of them wives of men on sustenance — are complaining that they are poorer because a greater amount of money is going into the hotels," Mr Leadley said. "With the increase in the cost of living the money they have goes not nearly so far. One woman was telling me to-day that they are a lot worse offi. "I am afraid theue is a good deal of truth in that," he added. As hotels were regarded as business concerns, Mr Leadley thought they should be subject to the same closing regulations as other businesses. The truth of the matter was, he asserted, that the bulk of the business of the hotels was done after tho closing of the business house and shops. "It seems that there is really one law for the public and another for the publican," he added. The opinion was advanced by Mr Leadley that the whole question of ; drinking was one that would be forced to the forefront of public opinion in the near future. He expressed the hope that the Government might also take up the matter and legislate for some curtailment of licensing hours. As the Government was aiming at minimising aecidents on the highways he thought the question of drink was one that should be ineorporated iu its humanitarian scheme.