OUR LIQUOR LAWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1938, Page 9

OUR LIQUOR LAWS

“ANTIQUATED AS THE MOA” 'LEGISLATIVE COUNCILLOR’S CRITICISM (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In view of the recent trend of licensing polls it was astonishing that the licensing laws, which were obsolete, had not been amended, said the Hon E. R. Davis (Auckland) referring to the value of the tourist traffic to New Zealand when speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the Legislative Council yesterday. Mr Davis said the licensing laws of today had been framed for puritanical times when women would have been ostracised for smoking and using lipstick. They were as antiquated as the moa. The time would come when the museum would have a moa in a glass case, and in its beak the licensing laws of 1938. The Tourist Department, Mr Davis said, was doing good work and New Zealand, in spite of its isolation, was getting more overseas tourists than Canada. The economic significance of the tourist trade was great, and New Zealand had a definite advantage in securing visitors because of the exchange rate. Numbers of industries, and particularly the hotel industry, benefited from the tourist traffic. It was time something was done about the accommodation provided at tourist resorts, he said. Tourists could not understand why they could not get drink at some of those resorts, and they expressed the opinion that the restrictions imposed in New Zealand made the country compare unfavourably with other parts of the world.