Liquor at the Airport

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28922, 16 June 1959, Page 14

Liquor at the Airport

With some regret we sustain our decision not to open the correspondence column to a discussion of the proposal to license the restaurant at the Christchurch Internationa] Airport for the sale of alcoholic drinks. Several letters on this subject were rejected last week, both after the announcement of the airport committee’s intentions and after the preliminary discussion of the proposal by the Christchurch Presbytery which, apparently divided on the question, referred it to its public questions committee for consideration The letters were rejected because they added little or nothing to the pros and cons of the wider question of reform of the licensing laws in —which have been fres?quently and exhaustively canbrassed in the news columns as in the correspondence the last few years.

Our regret is occasioned by the quite unusual number of letters received in yesterday’s mail from readers who were moved by the report of the Canter-bury-Westland Baptist Association’s views on this subject to express their own views on the licensing question or on the Baptist Association or on both. Of the 16 letters received, 14 were strongly in favour of the liquor licence, one asked (no doubt as a preliminary to a counter-attack on the Baptists) how many persons were present at the association’s meeting and how many adherents the denomination claims, and one supported the Baptist Association’s resolution. We do not offer these figures as conclusive evidence of public opinion; but we think they are significant. / And the bate counting qf heads we believe to be theX’SCkt best thing to ■ printing U-e letters, which pressure op our space forbids.