HOURS FOR HOTELS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 114, 16 May 1942, Page 6

HOURS FOR HOTELS

I noticed that the Dunedin Licensed Victuallers Industrial Union of Employers passed a resolution advocating changed hours for the sale of liquor—portion of time to be from 730 p m to 10.30 p.m. Why should the hotels be privileged to keep open from 730 to 10.30 every night, and i etail shops have to close every evening at 5.30? The thing is preposterous. Their suggestion to close for some hours during the day to make up for these evening hours is not because they think that by doing so after-hour trading will cease but simply because they know that more people will be free in the evenings, with the consequent increased spending. This is not a time to be encouraging drinking in the community, but a time for everybody to be getting on with the job of beating the enemy, and that won't be done by increasing our national drink bill To claim that in view of the longer hours worked by so many men they have become almost prohibited persons is only humbug. I have yet to see the man who wants a drink and will go without simply because he has to work a bit longer—he will find some means of getting it if he wants it. A WOMAN WORKER.