A COMPARISON.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1918, Page 7

A COMPARISON.

WHm HOTELS WERE CLOSED :' AND NOV Wellington, Dec. 10. The extraordinary number of charges of drunkenness that were before the Magistrate yesterday impelled Inspector Marsack to direct the attention oi the Magisirats to tha. position. He said; "To-day 13 'drunks' hs£p been dealt with, and one has been «manded. That is about double the number dealt with on Saturday, and mora than double that of the previous day, when seven drunks were dealt with. During the time the hotels ware closed we had two blank days, and' the charge-sneet for the rest of the time averaged three casc3 per day, and some of these cases were due to the drinking of methylated spirits. It appears that the licensees are not taking the care they should in servmg men with liquor. At the present time the police foroe is very much deplete.! tbrotigh influenza, and therefore, perhaps, have not been able to give the attention to the hotels that might be desiraible, but that fact should make all decent-minded licensees take more . trouble to see that their_ hotels .were properly conducted." Mr. D. G. Cooper, S.M., remarked that the number of cases was certainly too large. .He had the idea that hotelkeepers and prohibitionists were absolutely opposed, but it almost as if they were in league to give some assistance to have prohibition carried throughout the Dominion. "I have been astonished," remarked the Magistrate; "during tb'e last few days to, see so many drunken men in the town. Apparently some of the hotelkepers are not alive to their own interests, or they would not permit so much drunkenness at a time like the present."