LIQUOR LAWS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24988, 24 September 1946, Page 8

LIQUOR LAWS

RECOMMENDATIONS BY COMMISSION OPPOSITION FROM CHURCH PAPER Some recommendations by the Licensing Commission will receive very strong opposition, says a leading article in the * r Outlook,” the paper of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand.

“It is too early to discuss the report and its recommendations,” says the paper. “We have not yet seen anything but the brief summaries published in the daily papers, to whom the community owes a debt for a piece of able reporting. Until the report is read and the evidence for its Recommendations studied there can be little value in extensive criticism. It can be said, however, that there are some recommendations which will receive very strong opposition. “The proposal to give the State power to purchase the liquor trade will be strongly opposed by those who have vested interests in it, and by many others who strongly resent even the suggestion that they should in effect become shareholders in a business which they abhor. “The recommendation that hotels should be closed in some areas, and opened in others will also face stern opposition, and, at the very least, it must be maintained as a high principle that the mind of the residents of a district* is the only basis for a decision whether an hotel is placed in that district. ' , “The extension of the hours for the consumption of liquor is another very contentious proposition, especially in a country like this where it is illegal to purchase a loaf of bread or a pound of butter in those hours. Is beer of greater importance than butter?”