SATURDAY CLOSING

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 185, 5 August 1913, Page 6

SATURDAY CLOSING

POSITION Or THE HOTELS. THE TRADE VIEWPOINT. I In a petition presented to Parliament a day or two ago, :>igiied by 2.C00 residents of Auckland, the request was made that hotels should be compelled to close upon the statutory half-holiday, since to remain open "was detrimental to the general trading interests of the community ami caused a grave amount of drunkenness." The statement? contained in tbe petition are strongly rc-ented by those connected with the hotel trade. Mr. (J. U. secretary of the Auckland Provincial Council, which conducted the last licensing campaign in the iutoreata of the Trade, speaking to a ""Star" representative this morning, said it would be remembered that the original petition, signed by thousands of those favouring tbe Saturday half-holiday, was aimed in the direction of forcing a statutory halfholiday for shops. There was no suggestion then that hotels should be brought within the scopp of tbe Act. "In the present case." said Mr. Foster, "the Prohibition party is spiting aside the real interests involved, and merely seeks the furtherance of its fad. By what method of reasoning can the conclusion be reached that the keeping open of the hotel bars in Auckland on a Saturday afternoon has reacted tn the detriment of tbe general trading interests of the community? 1 have tin- assurance of a large numlH-r (if botelkeepers land my own experience is similar to theirs) that the takings have shown a decided deereaee pvery Saturday since the inception of the half-holiday, ami this during the winter season. \>hen the many attractions of the many resorts outside Auckland do not draw thp popuia-tion from the town. ; 1 am quite certain that when the season I again opens at the various seaside resorts, the Saturday takings of the hotels iin Auckland will .show a still greater percentage of decrease."

Numerous arguments, added Mr. Foster, could be used against the Prohibition party's proposal. Were the hotels to dose at 1 p.m. on Saturdays the bottle trade, already large, would increase out of all proportion. People who as a rule would not have more than one or, at the most, two drinks on a Saturday afternoon, woidd. if the hotels were closed, take far more liquor oil the premises before closing time than they would otherwise have consumed. That was always the tendency. Before Saturday closing became compulsory for sliops, the hour between nine and ten on Saturday night was always the busiest in the week for hotelkeepers, for at nine the shops closed, and the hotels were filled with people wanting a drink at the end of a tiring business day. Now. as soon as the shops closed people rushed straight out of town for tbe afternoon, and the evenings apparently were spent at home, or at amusement places. "At any rate," added Mr. Foster, '"1 am convinced that no hotel in Auckland finds business half so good now on Saturdays as before compulsory closing for shops came into operation. The tactics of the Prohibition party in now exploiting their propaganda at the expensse of the Shopkeepers' Association is characteristic of them."