TEN O’CLOCK CLOSING

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27753, 2 September 1955, Page 2

TEN O’CLOCK CLOSING

REPORTS FROM N.S.W. CRITICISED “PRESS NOT GIVEN ALL AVAILABLE FACTS” (New Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, September 1. Speakers at the Nelson district Methodist Synod today claimed that a subtle “softening up r ’ process was being introduced by liquor interests in New Zealand, according to a plied report. It was also alleged that I the press was not giving all the avail*, able facts. During a discussion on after-hour trading and 10 o’clock closing, speakers drew attention to what they claimed was a continual supply of articles dealing with 10 o’clock closing in Australia which was coming into the daily press. These, they said, were all of a pattern and favourable towards extended hours. “We want to get the truth publicised. What we are getting from the papers is not the truth,” said Mr F. H. Southgate. The Rev. P. D. Ramsay proposed that the church appeal to journalists to play fair with the facts available. The following resolution was carried: “This synod asks that conference take action to ensure that the Press Association is supplied with the real facts of the 10 o’clock closing legislation recently introduced in New South Wales.” The synod, in another resolution, said that after-hour trading was widely practised in New Zealand hotels, and urged the Government “in the interests of good law, good citizenship and of its own good name, to take appropriate and effective action to have the law respected and upheld.” The Rev. W. G. Eisner, of Westport, said that the “nagging of the church on this issue was about as enjoyable to the country as a nagging wife to a husband.” He disagreed with speakers who advocated heavier penalties because the church ought not to be con-t tinually urging punishments on people. “If the law is so universally disregarded, it ought to be an indication to the Government that the law is bad or at least needs revision,” he said.