BEERLESS SYDNEY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1919, Page 5

BEERLESS SYDNEY.

FACING A DRY CHRISTMAS. Sydney, Dec. 10. Sydney, in this torrid weather, is literally going round with its tongue hanging out. There was positive malevolence in the decision of the brewery employees to strike at this time. December, January and February are our three hot and steamy months, when even the most straight-laced think longingly of "sometiling off the ice." And then the holiday season is approaching. Sydney, as a matter both of habit and inclination, tries to keep Christmas as moist as possible. Great quantities of very light beers are consumed in this city. The heavy beem which one meets in the South Island are never seen here, but no middle-class larder is held to be complete unless there is half-a-dozen of lager somewhere handy. Now, these supplies are entirely cut off. No bottled beer has been purchaseable for a week past, and the hotels arc rigidly economising their stocks. One may pay a tribute to the climate in one small glass of the beverage; but ''another" or a "long un" are not considered in good form, and are sternly discouraged. The three huge breweries which supply Sydney—Resch's, Tooth's, and Toohey's, the proprietors of which are more or less millionaires—are shut down, and seem likely to remain so for some, time The brewery hands, like the musicians the other day, have miscalculated. All the orchestras in the theatres went on strike. The theatre managers ran their shows without music, or filled up with scratch orchestras. Result: Unconditional surrender of the Musicians' Union. The musicians do not represent an essential trade, and no non-essential trade should strike. Similarly, the brewery men do not belong to an essential trade. Their idleness causes public discomfort, maybe, but the life of the community will go on without a ripple if thc-y remain idle for a year. There is all the difference between a strike of brewers and a strike of marine engineers. The latter Can take the community by the throat; but the community simply ignores the brewers. This strike will end with the surrender of the brewers. Meanwhile, Sydney thirsts in vain.