HOTEL HOURS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26855, 7 October 1952, Page 2

HOTEL HOURS

Sir, —In France, which is held up to us as a model of “civilised” drinking, there is a high incidence of alcoholic poisoning, according to figures published in “The Press” fairly recently. In New Zealand, when a man goes home from a hotel after 6 p.m., he may be silly or quarrelsome, but he usually does go home; and he is fit for work next morning. But there are some to whom the 6 o’clock closing does not apply, because they have the entry to those hotels which supply drink after hours. (We are refusing to face facts if we deny that such hotels exist.) These men remain out the whole evening, get thoroughly tight, spend a tremendous amount of money and cannot work efficiently next day. Naturally, their families suffer greatly. Because the cost in human misery of all-evening drinking is so high, facilities for doing it should not be extended.—Yours, etc., EXPERIENCE. NOT THEORY. October 6, 1952.