Convergent Views On Estimate Of 15,000 Dozen Empty Bottles At The Mount.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14572, 16 January 1948, Page 3

Convergent Views On Estimate Of 15,000 Dozen Empty Bottles At The Mount.

CONVINCED THAT ORIGINAL !0^ EC FIGURE WAS CORRECT ,

rimates of 5,000 dozen, one of 8,000 dozen and a Three estiro appeared to be an understatement, Ktem ent w 'he licensees of the four hotels in Tauranga, pre lip firm, when they were asked by a represenln a * tole *„«■ nf Plenty Times to comment on a statement io^ be 2 c tor *at at least 15,000 dozen -'empties" 5 a bottA e .. c °;_j t Mount Maunganui as a sequel to holiday ould^ eC I p over the Christmas and New Year period, otivities tncl i: m? tes were referred to the bottle collector, Sen tbese id ho was still convinced that £15,000 worth of fnwever, tf jSS beer . wines and spirits, was consumed at P'i nC Snui over the busy period So far he had col"empties" and, m adaition, two other bottle Se in the Mount area. , o Uectors naa" iiiformants were approached. The first, a Two ota* felt that there wou id be mere than 5,000 Mranga resl L t ' t i es but thought that 15,000 dozen was a "bit ir 6,000 dozen u in f orma nt, who lives at Mount Maunganui, ~.. The seou . d t the estimate of the. bottle collector

. „, a< j e of the sales (# inquiries maj| our hotels « led bC £d by the wholesale 'auranga f J er Y o d, it was ascerhese according to the »d * at if not exceed the S*'*2£k. Although a far 1 dozen m ff w oU id be drunk nrtiott "1 ""Lin a quantity i nt fnSSranga and ITSicts.Ttt Consignment „p when the estimate of « licenSe Sies''was referred ° doZen iliS remarked that im, sfWe turnover for a |w° uld ii brewery. Another , JSS of P art y of then. P a beer went over to ¥ ra , ore tfa nui on New Year's K "Xffi wV Christmas IMKSS hotel was conL sad nother licensee. f t Lev 1946. 15,400 dczen Df *t wre brought over ,es ° Sfwharf for distribution Ta ff g the dis rict, according to h gh ° U nrmant It was expected Plenty t 5r Sought to Tauranga for the thJ district. Certain quanta' £"for despatch to Te

(hat period. In December, 1946, the figure was 115 tons. "It would not be hard to convince me that £15,000 worth of liquor had been drunk here, said the Mount Maunganui resident. Because of the infantile epidemic there were more grown-ups at the Mount during the holiday period and, consequently, more drinkers. He said that where certain people used to buy a few bottles of beer to celebrate the festive season, he knew of instances where they now purchased a dozen and even two or three dozen bottles of beer, while other liquors had proved popular. There were many different brands of beer, and he was convinced that thousands of bottles had been procured in other centres and brought to the district by holidaymakers, said the bottle collector. From what he had collected, from what he had seen and from inquiries' made of beer taken to the Mount, he was still convinced that his original estimate was correct.

Large Lots Collected

Before the busy season, added the collector, he had made regular visits to that district and he felt the Mount would be well clear of empty bottles before the Christmas activity. Therefore, the 5000 dozen "empties" collected would include only a very small proportion of beer drunk before Christmas. One report had been received of a 100 dozen lot of beer bottles, said the collector, while one party had provided a heap of 60 dozen "empties." A 50 dozen and a 40 dozen lot had been collected, while heaps of 20 dozen were quite common.

Railway Freight L effort was made to ascertain f amount of liquor brought to the Kto the Railways DepartffUVe Bay of Plenty Times Krmed that the figures could S divulged, however, it was Lid X one quarter that the Kould be near the 1000 dozen

The labels on the beer bottles showed that practically every brewerv in the North Island had contributed towards the holiday festivities at the Mount. A large number of spirit and wine bottles had been collected; in fact a considerable increase on previous .years, he thought.

irk. The Tauranga Harbour Board's urns for the month of December w that 176 tons of beer and wine, Eluding bottles and barrels, were tded on the Tauranga wharf ,in