DRINKING IN BARS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 257, 17 August 1950, Page 8

DRINKING IN BARS

WOMEN AND CHILDREN WELFARE WORKER’S EVIDENCE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. IG. Captain Grace Lamond, a Salvation Army welfare worker, told the Licensing Control Commission at its sitting in Lower Hutt to-day that a baby in arms, aged 14 or 15 months, was among children she had seen with women who were _ drinking in Lower Hutt hotels. • Captain Lamond said that on at least eight occasions she had seen children, some aged eight or nine, with women in Lower Hutt hotels. She was perturbed at the number of young mothers who frequented hotels on Saturday evenings. Some women she had seen were mothers of five or six children. On one occasion she had seen a child alone in an hotel hunting for her mother. She said the law should be amended to prevent children from going into hotel bars in any circumstances. The chairman of the commission, Mr A M. Goulding, said: “I feel disposed to express the views of the commission to all licensees that they should discourage this practice if it exists.” Mr Goulding said the commission thought that Captain Lamond had very properly brought the subject before them. Whether or not the commission 'made representations to the Government, he thought the Government would take notice of such evidence. Captain Lamond said she knew of proposals to extend the bar accommodation. If this extension increased drinking she wanted tt>. draw attention to the effect on home life, especially on women and children. “I know it is lawful for women and children to go into bars, but I disagree with the law,” she said. “There are still children about • without overcoats and without proper clothing. Home life is being affected by drinking.. Any unnecessary extension of drinking facilities should 'iq avoided.” Lounges were not exclusively used by women, there were almost as many men as women. Mr Goulding: Could this be compared with parents with their children present drinking in the lounge of a high-class hotel? Were women drinking in public bars? Captain Lamond replied in the affirmative, and said that another officer had seen children in the men’s bars.