A WAIL FROM THE RESTAURANT-KEEPERS. They want Protection from "Free Lunches."

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 118, 4 October 1902, Page 8

A WAIL FROM THE RESTAU-RANT-KEEPERS. They want Protection from "Free Lunches."

A CORRESPONDENT signinghimself " Free Luncheon," after wading through several foolscap sheets of argument about tied houses and the Small Birds Bill, gets down to the business of his missive. He says he is a prohibitionist and a restaurant-keeper, and he wants a crusade started against the hotel free luncheon. Unfortunately it is too late to ask any member to try a ." Free Lunch Abolition Bill " on Parliament, and seeing that it is not at all likely that the Legislative C uncil would do anything to crush the enterprise of the brewers, Mr. " Free Luncheon's " case seems hopeless. Anyhow it is purely a matter of philanthropy with the licensees of hotels to supply free 11 o'clock luncheons. * • • Very likely the brewer doesn't know anything about it. How anyone can imagine that, after having been able to obtain a pint of beer for sixpence, there is a margin of profit left to supply free lunch with, is beyond us. The brewers and licensees of hotels are reasonable men. They know that a person who has only sixpence wouldn't care to go to a restaurant to spend it. It looks so mean. They therefore make it possible for the owner of the humble " tanner " to eat and drink with that coin. They don't do it to attract custom, of course. No one would accuse them of wilfully taking custom from restaurant keepers, and anyhow the medical authorities agree that one should never drink without eating. * # * You should remember, Mr. " Free Luncheon," that the brewer cannot produce a glass of beer for much less than a farthing, and that it is unkind to accuse him of any ulterior designs on your business when he voluntarily gives a feed to boot, for the small sum of sixpence. Isn't it quite just and equitable if you keep a dozen bottles ot beer on your premises that the police shall come in, and get you fined £30 or so for " sly-grog" dealing ? You can go over to the hotel and buy the alcohol required by your customers at retail rates. What more do you require ? The sacred rights of the " trade " must be protected. * * » If the publican (as he does in Sydney) puts an elaborate luncheon on, with an army of waiters to carry comestibles towards you and your sixpenny beer, you might well complain, but there is no rhyme or reason in a person who wants the same treatment for himself that is meted out to his rival. And if a counter-lunch man does make his counter-lunch the only link between breakfast and dinner, what then ? Couldn't the restaurant keeper have a cinematograph going or a band playing as a "counter" attraction also. If you can't afford it, sublet your premises and have a clause in your agreement stipulating that the sub-lessee purchases his goods from you at your own price. By that means the liberty of the subject is assured, and happiness is distributed broadcast. * * * It will be admitted, too, that the "al fresco " style of partaking of food appeals to a Briton's love of comfort. In a restaurant one is expected to sit down as if one was civilised, and to use a knife and fork. All this is done away with by the institution of the free luncheon. One need not sit — one can't in fact — and the midday meal is much nicer if taken with the hands. To seek to overthrow one of the glorious liberties of colonial life is unkind. Avaunt, Mr. " Free Luncheon," get you to your kitchen.