TAVERNS IN THE TOWNS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 816, 18 March 1955, Page 5

TAVERNS IN THE TOWNS

Sir-I for one am shocked at the alarming increase in drinking in New Zealand, but your contention’ that this is directly attributed to six o'clock closing of hotels is an astonishing one. Is it not a fact that drinking and drunkenness are on the increase in almost all countries, in most of which, hotels are open for much longer hours than in this country? What about France, where the Government stresses as one of the foremost planks in its policy a drastic scheme for dealing with alcoholism, which is regarded as one of the greatest evils in that land? And in France they have hotel hours. The Listener would have here. Again, I would ask are our women not entitled to any consideration? Should they be compelled to stay at home every night,

while their lords and masters make ‘merry in the "pubs?" As one who has had sad experience of 10 o'clock closing of hotels in New Zealand, I unhesitatingly. declare that to revert to 10 o’clock closing would be a fetrograde step, and, possibly, a national calamity. Let me ask another pertinent question. If six o'clock closing is the cause of excessive drinking, as affirmed by The Listener, and an extension of the hours would lessen consumption, why is it that "The Trade" is fighting for 10 o’clock closing, and spending thousands of pounds to attain that end?

FRANK

PENN

(Auckland),