SHOULD LIQUOR BARS BE OPENED DURING THE STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 276, 19 November 1913, Page 2

SHOULD LIQUOR BARS BE OPENED DURING THE STRIKE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your report in Monday's issue, giving the result of the visit made by the Licensed Victuallers' Association on thr mn_istrates of this city, is in some respects disquieting, the reply indicating that ihe bars might be opened by the end of the week. The Strike Committee md the Seamen's Union, fiflf) strong, hair asked that they remain closed till the end of the present trouble. The subterfuge put forth by the tr.idr, viz., that tiir closed bars were greatly to the disadvantage of the travelling public, is so transparently disingenuous that I will no: take up your space to show up its cunning. Wherever I h-ivo travelled through the streets of this city during the present trouble, citizens of all classes have expressed the wish that the precaution already adopted may be continued to the end of the present disturbance. I endorse this view quite as much in the interests of the "specials"

:ts the -strikers." Hud the genera! public or the travelling public any complaints to make, 1 think tbey would have made them in the column of your journal. Their not having done so, indicate* that it is not the public who are inconvenienced, but the liquor sellers, who seemiugly would sacrifice the public safety to their prroed for money. 1 trust the citizens not interested in the liquor traffic will nrake their views al?o known to the Bench of Magistrates. If the precaution already taken was a wise one, and wo have never heard it questioned, then it ought to be maintained till matters resume a normal condition. We don't want a repetition of the Dublin riots in Auckland, with its accompanying bitterness, and we shall hardly escape it if the opposing forces are allowed to be supplied with liquor. There is a section of the community, the police, whose views should carry more weight with the Magistrates than the Trade. They, we feel sure, would condemn the sale of in toxicants at the present time. —T am, etc., WILLIAM RICHARDSON.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In your Police Conrt coliom of yesterday there appears a report of t-hree first offenders charged with drunkenness. Tn answer to 'hie Worship: ""Where <lid you fret the liquor?" one said " 1 don't know," another said " I don't know myself." Now, sir. in your issue of the 11th in.-rt., there -appears an account of several m-en charged with the same offence, and threatening behaviour in Queen street. The [>le:t was that they were under the influence of drink obtained at Norfchcote. Taking these cases in conjunction. doee it not appear that the Northfote dodije is just as true as the "don't know" trick? Knowing that the JS'orthootc Hotel was legally open they all, of course, got tlieir drink there, and "were it open yesterday it wonld have bpen the scapegoat. 1 "hoM no brief for the proprietor of the Xorthcote Hotel, but I understand, thnt. he has held licenses in the city for i-cventeen years, and is considered to 'be one of the most strict in conducting his business. The fact is that liis Worship has placed his 'finder on the spot: "Pa}- a few visits to some of the institutions in Albert Street." - 1 would add a few oilier streets ii-dpicont. but. pay those visits early. But Irii Worship li;w belled the cat. and the " institutions" will say unto themselves, " Verily, n word to the wise is Kufßcient." —T am, etc., KM.