BRIGHTER PUBLIC-HOUSES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 147, 19 July 1909, Page 4

BRIGHTER PUBLIC-HOUSES

SCHEME FOR SHAirTXG PEOPLE INTO SOBRIETV. London, May 20. The public• hotis'e of tbo future, transformed and made into a family resort, was discussed by Sir Alfred' Grippe, K.C., one of the signatories of the manifesto issued by tire True Temperance Association. Sir Alfred is chairman of the executive committee of the new association which seeks to cure excessive drinking not by shutting up publichouses. but by transforming them. "I? our campaign is successful," said •Sir Alfred, "the puMic-houscs of the future will fulfil a7l entirely new purpose. My idea is this: The publichouse is in our midst; therefore, rather than condemn, improve. A long bar, where men lounge over a counter simply to drink, and retain their places only so long as they have their glasses relilled, and where drinking is the only purpose—this represent what must lyeconic a thing of the past. "In the future the public-house will become a place to which a man will take iiis wife and children in the eventug—a place for pleasant social meeting. Cheerful public rooms, with tables dotted about, bright rooms for games, rooms where men mnv write their letters and transact ihelr business—such •areoo r ideas at present. Roof gardens for Ihe London public-houses have .been ; suggested, and music, too. \ *'Our crowning hope is that innocent amusement in tire public-house will act as' a:i antidote to vicious amusement, that when cheerful family parlies invade I lie public-house, the drunkard will bp shinned into temperance. The long drinking bar is certainly the blot that must limt be erased; this is responsible fo r many evils. What we hope to do may he very well summed up in the words: 'Make the public-house respectable.' "