SLOP BEER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 7

SLOP BEER.

SOLD IN SYDNEY.

REPORT TO COUNCIL.

NEW BY-LAW TO BE FRAMED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, March 2

One of the few ways in which serious trouble might be started in Sydney would be to interfere with the average man's access to his glass of beer. In fact, beer ranks witli high rents, the cost of living, the races, the dogs, the surf and the pictures, as a really important topic.

It will be appreciated, therefore, that Sydney has been very interested to learn this week that, "unknown to it,i it has often been drinking waste or slop beer from drip trays. This was revealed! by an inspectiou of 185 city hotels by the City Health Officer, Dr. T. Lewis Dunn. Dr. Dunn found |hat seven hotels had arranged tubes leading from the drip trays to the cellars, that in 38 hotels drip beer was collected in enamel buckets, jugs and mugs, and that in 126 hotels the drip trays were not connected with any fittings. But in many of these there were mugs for collecting the waste beer under every tap. Dr. Dunn reported to the City Council Health Committee that this drip beer was stated to be strained into partially empty casks and sold to the public, strained into mugs with fresh beer and bottled, and sold along with stout when this mixed drink was called for. Dr. Dunn pointed out that beer which had dripped direct from a tap and been collected into a clean receptacle might not be unfit for human consumption, but! the overflow from a «lass held under the tap might run over the hands of the server, and where "hisses which had been used were being refilled, any saliva adhering to the edge would be carried into the drip tray with the overflowing liquor. Dr. Dunn also reported that facilities for washing glasses and bottles were inadequate.in many hotels. Milk bars and cafes, he pointed out, were required!

to use both hot and cold water fori] cleansing, and he saw no reason why J hotels should be exempted. Collected in Cellar. Simultaneously with the publication in the newspapers of this report the licensee of the Merrylands Hotel was fined £20 in the Parramatta Court for having had on his premises adulterated beer which could have been sold to the public. An inspector gave evidence that he found two drip trays under three beer taps. There was an outlet in them stopped by a small cork. There were two tubes running from the drip tray into casks in the cellar below. When he asked the licensee* what he did with his beer slops the licensee replied that his wife made vinegar with them, but when the inspector searched the kitchen and pantry he could not find any. A police sergeant, who inspected the hotel with the inspector, then traced three pipes, running from the casks in the cellar to the bar. When the inspector tested the beer that came out of the taps in the bar he found that it bore all the appearance of slop beer that had been collected in the cellar below.

There have been several other similar prosecutions recently, and other prosecution* of hotels which have been found guilty of keeping beer taps, pipes, drip trays and suchlike in a filthv condition Coincidentally with these "revelations there has been a marked decline in th< consumption of beer, but the president of the U.L.V.A. declared that this wa< due to other reasons. The executive o the U.L.V.A.. as. soon as the revelation: were made public, expressed its desin to co-operate with the City Council, thi Health Department and the police ii putting down such practices, but whei the City Council health committee pro posed to the council that there shouh be a conference with the D.L.V.A. 01 the matter the recommendation wa: promptly rejected. One alderman re marked acidly that the police did no i suggest a conference with criminals whei j they found that offences had been com mitted. The council decided instead to frame new bv-lairs to compel cleanliness in hotels "and prevent slop beer from being sold. The by-laws will have to be j K,r the Health and Local approved by the ae« Government Ueparini«•"»> . been stated that when this has been Son" consideration will also be given to making such offences grounds tor the cTncemn* or refusal of iotel licenses.