GOODWILL AND FREEDOM
A LESSON FOR THE ELECTORS. (Manawatu Times.) To (hose simple folk who wonder why it is that those engaged in the licensed trade "do not get out quietly without all this fuss," a case which has just engaged the attention of the Supreme Court should be instructive. The facts are simple. Some time ago the license of the Gretna Hotel, Taihape, was up for lease. This hotel is situated in a township with a population of about •2000 men, women, and children, and caters for a scatered near-by population and the usual run of travellers passing through. Moreover, it is not the only hotel in Hie place, although of its kind it is' Urn best. Well, this hotel was put up for lease, and a client was found prepared to pay £2O a week for the stand and also to find backing from Wellington merchants for a goodwill of .Clo,()P'r for a tenure of five years (or £3."> a week). ■ This meant a total rental of ;Cai) a week (or the price of 2200 sixpenny "spots" every seven days), without taking into consideration wages, interest, insurance, fuel, lighting, and other incidental charges. What other class of business, in the world could carry a burden like that and come out at the other end with any chance of profit? The prospective buyer of an ordinary concern asked for £I,OOO goodwill on a straight-out purchase would expect proof that the business had returned a clear profit of £3OO per annum for several years before he would consent to Make a deal. Tt is difficult to say what profit he would expect when asked to find the huge siim of £ 10.000 for the right to carry on for the limited period of five years. To people who arc being asked to accept the responsibility of continuing the license system an indication of what precisely is involved in the liquor franchise is timely. It is possible to think of this .-£1(1.000 goodwill and £5200 rental and the profits over and above, being diverted from this simple bush hostelry into the ordinary avenues of trade for the purchase of necessary commodities; it is possible to think of the time which would be absorbed by the Taihape populace ~ and visitors to the firctna Hotel being spent in useful avocations for recreational pursuits; it is possible even to imagine Taihape bereft of this local, centre of recreation and diversion and yet contriving to make a certain amount of headway as a borough !We are told by the trade advocates we as voters must continue. to sustain the licensing system as an adjunct to freedom and to preservo the rights and liberties of the peonle. We are entitled to ask ourselves if, in view of such instances as this, we are well advised to continue a ' monopoly in which the advantages are so obviously' one-sided. If the licensee of a rural publiehousp can afford to pay such an amount for the risrbt to trade in intoxicants, what must be the revenue (and the rentplsl of some 'if flv licensed houses in tie centres of population?
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Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1919, Page 9
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520GOODWILL AND FREEDOM Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1919, Page 9
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