BEER BOYCOTT ON COAST

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25309, 8 October 1947, Page 8

BEER BOYCOTT ON COAST

Commenting on the beer boycott at Greymouth yesterday, the secretary of the Trades and Labour Council (Mr T. Pratt) said Reef ton workers had decided to observe the boycott, and the council was endeavouring to spread the boycott south to Hokitika. In Greymouth itself, he said, the boycott was being widely observed. , The Licensed Victuallers’ Association is. generally, adopting a passive attitude, and has indicated that it is prepared to continue the trial of strength with the Trades Council “We are fighting a clean fight, and we have nothing to say,” said Mr A. Beban, president of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association. “Everybody knows what we want, and why we want it. We are not trying to rob anyone,” he added. . The Greymouth hotel that continues to charge 6d a glass for beer has been doing a flourishing trade, and this is the only hotel where there is any semblance of a five o’clock rush. A report that hotels are retailing bottles of beer over the bar counter at the usual price of 2s and supplying glasses is denied by hotelkeepers at Greymouth. A meeting of timber workers was held at Paroa to-night. Railwaymen also met at Greymouth to-night. Unionists in Hokitika will be urged to extend the boycott fully to Hokitika at a meeting to-morrow night, which will be addressed by officials of the Trades Council.