LICENSING REFORM

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32418, 14 April 1944, Page 3

LICENSING REFORM

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENT CARLISLE EXPERIMENT RESTORATION IN INVERCARGILL In view of the result of the licensing poll in Invercargill in favour of the restoration of liquor in the city and the consequent proposals made about which system should be adopted for the hotels there, the experience of a visitor to the hotels and inns of Carlisle and the surrounding district in Cumberland, England, is of interest.

The first impression gained was of the superiority of the premises over the general run of hotels in other parts of the country. Persons who continually travelled throughout Great Britain were of the opinion that Carlisle had the best licensing system in the United Kingdom. Drunkenness Combatted With the importation into the Carlisle neighbourhood of a large number of highly-paid labourers engaged in the construction of munitions factories, there was no adequate housing facilities available, ’drunkenness reached alarming proportions, and the Central Control Liquor Board decided to take over the supply of intoxicants in 1916. The board acquired in all five breweries and 321 licensed premises or businesses, of which 116 licensed houses were situated in the city of Carlisle. In Carlisle itself 58 out of 184 have been closed. Striking Results Commenting on the experiment, the Royal Commission on Licensing in 1932 stated: “The social and material results have been, we think, striking. There are few houses in which considerable improvement has not been effected, and in the new houses, as also those where it has been possible to effect drastic reconstruction, are, generally speaking, models of public house construction.” A system of management, popularly known as “disinterested management,” is used. The policy of the management is to discourage what is popularly known as “perpendicular drinking”—that is, standing by the bar and drinking. When the visitor first went to the bar in Carlisle he breasted up to the bar in time-honour-ed fashion and said to his friends: “What’ll you have?” Serving At Tables He was told very politely, however, that if he and his party took a seat at one of the little tables; in the room their orders would be taken there and

served in the same way as one is served with tea and cakes in a tearoom. In the opinion of the visitor, this amenity slowed down the rate of drinking and was a much more civilised method of enjoying a convivial sojourn in a hostelry. In his opinion this system should be put into operation at all hotels, irrespective of ownership, and all bars should be open on to the street.

Another reform the visitor would like to see introduced —this was on the lines of the Carlisle policy—was the compulsory provision of food in all hotel bars. This could be charged for as it was in England, hut it should be available. Such a provision would eliminate the “pigs in a touch” aspect of the free counter-lunch practice. A system of “disinterested management” would help to make the serving of food a success. Chance For Invercargill The situation in Invercargill provides an opportunity for a Carlisle system in New Zealand. As there are no licences there at present it would not be necessary to buy out existing undertakings, although it is conceivable that some of the present “private” hotels would be taken over. One could say with assurance that publicly-owned hotels, in this person’s opinion, with disinterested management, would eliminate practically the whole of the after-hour trading which is rampant at present, especially in the more fashionable hotels. The lounges would be under stricter control, and the work of the police, as it has been at Carlisle, would be considerably lightened.