LICENSING COMMITTEE
A BREEZY WITNESS. AUCKLAND, June 1. Interesting evidence ■ regarding seamen and liquor was given to-day, before the Licensing Committee, which is considering the question of granting the old Thames Hotel license to the new Ambassador Hotel 011 the waterfront.
A witness called by Sir Jolm Findlay was Arthur Pretson C'owie, who bad been Missiojier for the Seamen at Auckland for the past nineteen years. He said that during that time lie had been brought daily in contact with seamen, and waterside workers, of all kinds. So far as the seamen were concerned, their sobriety , compared favourably with that of landsmen People said: “There goes a drunken fireman. Why not say: There go 20 sober firemen ? The sailor was a very appealable individual. should not give them “racecourse whisky,” or any other had drink. Sir John Findlay: I went 'to the races yesterday, and I don’t feel any the worse for it. (laughter).
Continuing, witness said that most watersiders and sailors had their own hotels to go to, and lie did not think they would change for a n»?w hotel in Quay Street. 111 his opinion, the. new hotel would create no increase in drinking 011 the water front. A great deal depended on the liotcl-keopers. The evils could be minimised by the management. In reply to Mr Johnston, witness said that in li is experience lie found that drink was not the worst temptation sailors had to contend with. You swear that?—Yes, I swear it, before God. Is it not a fact that drink is a danger to men on ships?—What drink? Boer and other liquor.—l have a glass of beer occasionally. (Laughter).
Sir John Findlay to witness: You know that prison reports show that there is less crime due to drink among sailors than among any other class?—That is very interesting.
Continuing witness said that in 1918 he was appointed Missioner to the waterside workers. There was very little drunkenness during that year, and tie believed that that spirit was with them still.
The hearing was adjourned till tomorrow.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19260605.2.18
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Hokitika Guardian, 5 June 1926, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
342LICENSING COMMITTEE Hokitika Guardian, 5 June 1926, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in