BEER FROM JAPAN

IMPORTATION. UNLIKELY

AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION

(By Telegraph.) (Special to, the "Evening Post.") s ( -^ DTJNEDIN, This Day. "Many years'ago Tan',San mineral water bottled at' Takaradzuka, Kobe (Japan) was placed on the New Zealand market, but there was no demand for it," said a leading hotelkeeper, when approached concerning the pos^. sible importation of Japanese beer to New Zealand. "The New Zealand public looks as-' kance at anything bottled in the East, because nobody knows the conditions under which it is made or bottled,1' he ' declared, in expressing the view that i Japanese beer would not create a demand in the. Dominion.

'Hygienic conditions were not the same in - Oriental countries and the British-public was aware,'of the "fact. There was/however, a good_ deal of competition in beer, he explained, and in Dunedin they were selling six bottlings of Australian ales. These were very popular beers and they could be purchased at the same, price as New Zealand bottlings of a similar kind.

Members of the trade had an advantage in buying the imported product, because there was no restriction •on the use of the" bottles, as was made by . New Zealand breweries and bottlers. This meant a difference of 2d a bottle. Although the price of New Zealand beer actually was the same as Australian, Australian beer was offering very serious competition because it was sold by merchants throughout New .Zealand at the same price as the Dominion product, an advantage to the hotelkeepers .being that they made an extra 2s a dozen on the bottles.