DRINKING BY WOMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 36

DRINKING BY WOMEN.

(Fbok Oxm Own* Cobrespoitdkxt.) WELLINGTON, March 4. Wellington does not appear to be so bad as Auckland in the matter of drinking in hotels by women, though a number of -women hera, as elsewhere, do patronise the hotel bars. One authority in the police, when approached on the subjeot by the- Post, -was not_at all concerned to hear that there was drinking among women at Auckland or anywhere else. For the past 50 or 46 years he Had' been fully aware that a certain section of respectable women " visited hotels Occasionally for the purpose of getting a drink, ana he seemed to impl^ that the records of the Police Court wqre not materially affected thereby. Everyone, of course, knows that at Home women drink tU)Te openly in hotels than, in New Zealand, but he did not at all consider that women are contracting the drinking habit unduly in the Dominion. Another experienced . police officer had much the same story to tell. According to him the women of Wellington do not go to hotels — only the ckse of women whose visit to a hotel is merely the inevitable prelude to an appearaooe r before the court. There may, he admitted, be a few who ch-op into a quiet, private loom at an out-of-the-way hotel occasionally for a quiet moment and a drink, but their number is infinitesimal. Generally speaking, the women of Wellington, in his experience, don't drink in hotels. AUCKLAND, March 5. The Women' 6 Christian Temperance" Union passed a resolution deploring the increase of drinking by women in hotels, and urging more" energy in the scientific - temperance instruction of school children in order to combat the evil. EXPERIENCE IN CHRISTCHURCH. {Fbom Ops Own Cobbbspokdext.) CHRISTCHURCH, March 6. Women drinkers in hotels and publicbouses having been the subject of telegrams from various- oar ts, a Truth reporter made some inquiries of the police to-day to ascertain to what extent, 'if any, the eiril prevails in Christchurch. According to the police, the evil is no worse now wan it ever wa«, 'and at no time has it been serious. The casual observer might uiink it worse then it is, because at some ijotels to which livery stables are- attached farmers' wives and countrywomen generally wait for their husbands, and there «r4 also a certain number of women who will go to a Jhotel for refreshment who could in no sense be called drinkers. The epaervlsicn exercised by the police is 100 strict fco permit of any such, evil existing. The hotels are all visited by the sergeants daily between 1 o'clock, and closing time, and oy-an later, and it would be imposciblt for women to drink on any scale without the police being aware of the fact. METHODIST ecXNTFERENFOE SPEAKS. CFftou Ottk Own Coxbespohdejtt.) AUCKLAND, March 6. At to-day' 6 meeting of the Conference the following resolution was oarried: — "That thip Conference has learned with disguxt and horror of the extent to which women are drinking in the hotels of Auckland. It is another illustration of tho inveterate evil of licensed houses. The Conference urges the police authorities throughout New Zealand to look carefully into this growing shame and degradation, with a view to providing a basis for remedial legislation."