TAVERNS IN THE TOWNS
Sir,-The liquor problem in this country would, I think, be better solved by troughs than by longer hours. I recently returned from England after a two-years’ visit, during which I became used to the corner pub with its quiet and leisured atmosphere. If it is thought that this pattern of drinking can be initiated here, I suggest that we learn how to drink first. For in England, drinking is a social pleasure, the concomitant of small intimate gatherings and light talk. New Zealanders drink to get drunk. How often has one heard. such vulgar boasts as "Went to a good party last night-sick as a dog!" We seem, as a nation, to have inherited strong Puritan prejudices against drink; it is possibly a rebellion against these unnatural bans which sends the average pub-crawler on his epic swillings. The New Zealand habit (or "art," as some mean minds would say) of drinking a glass of beer in one gulp is not only a maltreatment of one’s stomach but a foul insult to a noble and fine a ate
drink.
BRYAN
PAYNTER
(Auckland).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19550415.2.12.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 820, 15 April 1955, Page 5
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185TAVERNS IN THE TOWNS New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 820, 15 April 1955, Page 5
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